Soul, Mind and Body

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Soul, Mind & Body

What is a soul? Often understood to be the non physical essence of a person. Means the same thing as ‘self’. The soul is capable of having a relationship with God and carries the possibility of living after death.

Dualists: Two aspects to human beings; the non physical soul and a physical body. Tend to believe in life after death.

Monists: Humans made up of one substance - the body. No scientific evidence for the soul or life after death. When a body dies, human’s life dies.

  • Plato on the soul

  • For Plato, the soul and body were two separate entities. The body is temporary, physical aspect of person, soul is the essential, immaterial aspect. Soul is temporarily united with body, eg a driver of a car who inhabits the car temporarily and then gets out and goes elsewhere.

  • Also argues every quality comes from it’s opposite - something is big because there are smaller things. Draws conclusion that therefore life comes from death and death comes from life - endless chain of birth, death and rebirth.

  • Uses argument from knowledge to support immortality of soul. Slave boy with no education given geometry puzzle to solve. Through questioning he is able to work out the problem, Plato says he is able to do this because he was using knowledge he already had. Our intuitions are evidence of knowledge attained before birth. Shows our souls had lived in world of Forms.

  • Also used metaphor of a chariot being pulled by 2 horses. 2 horses are ‘appetite’ and ‘emotion’ (basic needs that pull us along), controlled by the charioteer, ‘reason’, making sure the two work together in a rational direction. Without reason we are led astray, eg by letting emotions take over we may say something stupid. Tripartite view. Soul consists of 3 elements.

  • Because the soul is immortal and the body clearly isn’t, they must be two different and distinct. EG Er, who died on battlefield and told story of afterlife, where he encountered judges. ‘Myth of Er’ demonstrates necessity of seeking wisdom through philosophy in order for soul to benefit.

  • Aristotle on the soul

  • Soul is an integral part of the body. Physical body in continual state of change, but the ‘substance’ remains the same, in terms of continuing identity - this is what Aristotle saw as the soul. Why we are the same person as a baby, child, teen and adult.

  • Materialistic attitude. The soul is what gives a living thing its essence, so that it’s not just matter but has all the capabilities and characteristics it needs in order to be what it is.

  • The ‘psyche’ or soul, is what distinguishes a living thing from a dead thing.

  • Humans have a higher degree of soul because they have the ability to reason.

  • Analogy of an axe. To be an axe, it needs the ability to chop wood. A toy axe is not a ‘real’ axe because it doesn’t

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