OCR Religious Studies - Life, Death and the Soul

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Two main theories of human nature
Dualism and Materialism
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Dualism
the theory that there exist both bodies and minds, distinct from one another yet linked together in some way
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Materialism
the theory that our minds are inseperable from our bodies
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Plato on the Soul
Plato stated that the soul belonged to a level of reality that was higher than that of the body, and believed the soul to be a substance and immortal, and this view was dervied from a series of ideas, which he called Forms
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Plato on the forms
For everything in existence, Plato accepted that there was the perfect idea (form), e.g for every dog there is an ideal dog, and every individual things participates in these universal ideas, and the idea is prior to the individual instance of it, an
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Plato on ideas
Ideas are not physical things, so they must belong in the spiritual realm of reality, which is more real than the material realm, and the soul is that which can grasp the realm of ideas, it is not matter which is gross/unthinking, the physical world
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Plato's main view on the soul
The soul is immaterial and is capable of knowing eternal truths beyond the world, and the soul wants to travel into the realm of heavenly ideas and to understand them; the body wants to be involved with world matters to do with the senses
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Plato on Knowledge
Knowledge is the recollection of the aquaintance that we had with the forms before our immortal souls became imprisoned in our bodies, and so the aim of the soul is to break free of the chains of matter and flee to the realm of ideas, where it will b
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Allegory of the Cave
Prisoners in a cave since birth (people in the world) can only see the shadows of individuals walking past the cave (perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence), prisoners would play a "game" one whould guess correctly what it was a shadow o
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What happened to our previous knowledge?
Plato argued that before we were born we had knowledge of the Forms but we "forgot" and thus lost, this knowledge, however it is possible to grasp the forms again by asking the right questions, in other words through logic
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What does plato teach about humas?
that humas need to become enlightened to free them from ignorance and darkness, but teachers cannot force this knowledge on people, the power and capicity of learning exists in the soul already
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How do we gain an understanding of the form of good?
Jst as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too knowledge can be gained only by a person willingly seeking it, and eventually the search will lead to understanding of the Form of Good and people will turn from
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What analogy did plato use for the soul?
Plato compared the soul to a charioteer in charge of two horses, with one being good and the other being badly behaved, representing Reason, Spirit and Desire
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Reason
the most superior of all elements, it allows us to gain knowledge, distinguish right from wrong and to understand the Forms
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Spirit
the second element allows us to love and inspires courage but if it is left unchecked, we can become reckless and conceited
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Desire
the most inferior element, it is necessary to encourage us to look after our bodies physical needs, but if left unchecked we can drift into hedonism and be no better than animals
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Why did plato give the anology?
Plato gave the analogy to show how he though the three different strands worked together, he thought that a person should always allow reason and logic to take the lead rather than let the demands of emotion/appetite obscure wisdom
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Socrates on the soul
Socrates argued that the soul contiues to live in a state where it has thoughts and intelligence and that after death, it is undisturbed by the distractions of its bodily demands and can therefore reach its highest state
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Plato's Dualism Strengths
Crimes people commit are clearly motivated by desire and spirit, and often lack a certain degree of reason show they perhaps are formed from disharmony in the soul
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Stephen Evans on Plato
Stephen Evans argues Plato offers a rational argument for the existence of another reality, which can be read off this world, even though not fully; this involves free choice
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Bryan Magee on Plato
Bryan Magee argues that Plato's concept of another world gives value and meaning to the present world
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Antony Kenny on Plato
Antony Kenny gives a useful example that provides evidence to some extent of the different elements from the soul from a conflict between it: think of a young child throwing a tantrum, this shows the spirit and desire of the child not being directed
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Plato's Dualism Weaknesses
An indivisible entity might not be broken down any further but it can still diminish into nothingness, therefore, indivisibility is no necessary guarantee of survival as Plato and Aquinas thought 2. Plato's account of the soul's immortality is depe
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The Bible's understanding of human immortality
The Bible's understanding of human immortality rejects the distinction between body and soul, in this sense the Biblical view of human beings is closer to that of Aristotle than it is to Plato
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Aristotle's middle path
Aristotle hoped to avoid the errors of Plato on one side and the materialists on the other. He wanted to find a middle path which retained the insights of both, for Plato, the soul exists independently of the body in which it is temporarily imprisone
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Aristotle on materialists
Materialists, Aristotle believed, failed to do justice to the formal and final causes by which a soul animates and orders the life of a living thing, but equally Plato's abstract ‘soul’ belonging to the Forms failed to do justice to the evidence of s
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Aristotle's analogy
Aristotle compared the unity of body and soul to the crest embossed on a wax seal, in that it is as impossible to separate the soul from the body as it is to detach the crest from the sealing-wax, for Aristotle, only that which contains God's own inc
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Aristotle on the soul
For Aristotle, the soul is not immortal, it animates the body, it is its organising structure, it co-existent with the body but it remains constant throughout the ever-changing seasons of the body, the soul does not pre-exist the body nor does it pos
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Aristotle on the soul and death
When the body is dead so too is the soul which animated it, as both final and formal cause of the body you could say that the soul is something like the ‘function’ of the body, and what it does and what it potential might be
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Aristotle on the rational soul
Of all the animals, however, humans are unique in that they have a rational soul and can recognise the difference between right and wrong, Aristotle makes a distinction between the outward appearance of something, such as my body, which he called the
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The relationship between the soul and the causes
For Aristotle, the soul is the Efficient Cause of the body in that it brings about movement in the body; it is the Formal cause of the body in that it gives the body the organising structure that makes it the particular body it is, giving me my ident
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Why does Aristotle think that your idenity remains the same?
My identity remains the same throughout my life because I have a common substance or soul which animates me throughout all the changes which, from birth, through teenage life, adulthood and old age, my body goes through, the accident of my appearance
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Aristotle's Soul Theory strengths
1. Aristotle's theory can be defended because it derived from reflection on his studies of the natural world, and this could be seen as a strength of Aristotle's Four Causes compared with Plato's Forms, which are not observable in the physical world
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Who did Aristotle influence?
His views were substantially influential to Christianity, and Aquinas incorporated a number of his ideas into his work, including creating the Cosmological Arguments and the transcendent Prime Mover who Aristotle refers to is frequently used by Aquin
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Aristotle's Soul Theory Weaknesses
1. Aristotle attempts to move between materialism and dualism but as a result can be criticised from both sides 2. Materialists claim that the notion of formal cause or an essential self is simply a way of talking and represents nothing other than f
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John Hick's view on the soul
1. Aristotle attempts to move between materialism and dualism but as a result can be criticised from both sides 2. Materialists claim that the notion of formal cause or an essential self is simply a way of talking and represents nothing other than f
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Card 2

Front

the theory that there exist both bodies and minds, distinct from one another yet linked together in some way

Back

Dualism

Card 3

Front

the theory that our minds are inseperable from our bodies

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Plato stated that the soul belonged to a level of reality that was higher than that of the body, and believed the soul to be a substance and immortal, and this view was dervied from a series of ideas, which he called Forms

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

For everything in existence, Plato accepted that there was the perfect idea (form), e.g for every dog there is an ideal dog, and every individual things participates in these universal ideas, and the idea is prior to the individual instance of it, an

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Preview of the back of card 5
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