1.2 Soul, Mind & Body

Materialism - John Hick - Replica Theory

-Hick supports Irenaean Theodicy -suggests body and soul are one -rejects the idea that the soul survives the body at point of death -the lives we live after death are replicas/duplicates. We come to life in heaven as an exact copy of the person who lived/died on earth. -God creates this replica to live on after death -progressive argument present Stage 1: John Smith disappears from the USA and an exact replica appears in India. John Smith's friends go to India to ask the replica questions, they conclude that it's him Stage 2: John Smith dies in USA, an alive replica appears in India as soon as he dies. He has miraculously been recreated in another place Stage 3: John Smith dies in the normal, physical world. But a replica gets created in the Resurrection World which is populated by resurrected people - the body and soul gets replicated. John Hick believes God is omnipotent (all powerful) and so this is possible

Materialism - John Hick - Replica Theory - Weaknesses

-Isn't plausible -couldn't physically happen -not everyone would believe it/agree -not universal -very farfetched -progressive argument is flawed -body is subject to change and decay -at point of death you are replicated - elderly die because they are ill or frail - they will be replicated in the state.

Dualism - Plato

-There is a soul and it is immortal -Souls are trapped inside bodies and long to be free of them -Souls truly belong to a transcendental realm called the realm of the forms; this realm exists metaphysically -Soul therefore belongs to the study of metaphysics, not science -Soul has to exist as there is no other way for knowledge of the forms to cross from the transcendent, intelligible realm into the physical realm

Dualism - Aristotle (do not use in exam)

-There is a soul but the soul is not immortal; does not consider the soul to be a separate, immortal occupant of the body - the soul ceases to exist at the death of the body -Argues the soul has to exist as there is no other way to explain movement, the body doesn't move itself, so movement must originate in some other place -Calls the soul 'de anima' - soul is the animating force of our body -Says soul finds it source in the heart (not made from God) -Believed in hierarchy of souls - human is highest, followed by animals and vegetables. -It's rationality that gives our souls higher status

Biological Materialism Theory - Richard Dawkins

-suggests that the creation and survival of all life is held in the digital information, contained in DNA -the 'soul' is nothing more than a mythical concept, invented by primitive people -believes that the soul was created to make people feel more positive about living after death

Materialism - John Hick

20th Century materialist (disagrees with dualism)

Materialism - Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976)

British philosopher who criticised Descartes' theory. -Ryle believes that mental processes are just intelligent acts and that there are no processes distinct from intelligent acts. -The operations of the mind are not just represented by intelligent acts; they are the same as those intelligent acts -This shows that he was a materialist as he believed that the mind and the body were the same thing and shouldn't be spoken about as if they could be separated. The myth of the ghost in the machine: e.g when dancers dance, they do not think - body can move without the obvious presence of the mind

Materialism - Richard Dawkins

Dawkins (1941-) - Zoologist & Atheist - follows Charles Darwin's ideas Wrote a book called 'River Out Of Eden', 1995 - in this book he rejects the concept if any part of us being immortal/having an immortal soul Quote from book: "There is no spirit-driven life force...life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information". He is opposed to arguments for the existence of God

Biological Materialism - Richard Dawkins

Dawkins believes that: -there is no soul -life after death isn't true -the only way we can live on is through being spoken about -once you're dead, you're dead

Materialism - John Hick - Eschatological Verification (use for final paragraph/argument for why replica theory is plausible)

Eschatological Verification: At the end of the world/times we will know the answer

Cartesian Dualism - Descartes

He thought that everything that he could not locate physically (like feelings and sensations) became part of the mind. 'I think therefore I am' - therefore the mind is distinct from the body, although they interact. Ideas were in the mind and the body performs all physical activities. Although they interact, as the mind can cause events to occur in the body and the body can cause events to occur in the mind, they are separate. uses 'mind' and 'soul' interchangeably

Materialism - John Hick - Replica Theory - Strengths

Idea of a sort of Heaven has been around for a long time, so many people could believe this theory if they were religious

Materialism

Our minds are inseparable from our bodies - Dawkins, Ryle, Hick

Plato - Tripartite Soul

Plato believed that the soul was made up of three parts (tripartite soul) - Rational (mind/charioteer/ruling class - wisdom but lazy), spirited (heart/white noble horse/soldiers - courage but anger and envy) and appetitive (belly/black ugly horse/working class - temperance but lust and greed) Our emotions and appetites pull us in separate directions and reason must control them (like a charioteer controlled two wilful horses) but each of theses has a function in a peaceful and well-balanced soul.

Dualism

The belief that the soul and body are two separate entities - Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas (Descartes) - though, they believe that the body and soul are linked together in some way

Plato - Analogy of the Charioteer

The chariot is pulled by two winged horses, one mortal and the other immortal. The mortal horse is deformed and ugly. Plato describes the horse as a "crooked lumbering animal, put together anyhow" The immortal horse, on the other hand, is noble and game, "upright and cleanly made... he is a lover of honour and modesty and temperance". In the driver's seat is the charioteer, tasked with guiding the horses - the aim is to get these horses in sync as he needs to stopping bobbing on the ridge of heaven. The charioteer's destination? The ridge of heaven, beyond which he may behold the Forms: essences of things like Beauty, Wisdom, Courage, Justice, Goodness — everlasting Truth and absolute Knowledge. These essences nourish the horses' wings, keeping the chariot in flight. The charioteer joins a procession of gods, led by Zeus, on this trip into the heavens. Unlike human souls, the gods have two immortal horses to pull their chariots and are able to easily soar above. Mortals, on the other hand, have a much more turbulent ride. The white horse wishes to rise, but the dark horse attempts to pull the chariot back towards the earth. As the horses pull in opposing directions, and the charioteer attempts to get them into sync, his chariot bobs above the ridge of heaven then down again, and he catches glimpses of the great beyond before sinking once more. If the charioteer is able to behold the Forms, he gets to go on another revolution around the heavens. But if he cannot successfully pilot the chariot, the horses' wings wither from lack of nourishment, or break off when the horses collide and attack each other, or crash into the chariots of others. The chariot then plummets to earth, the horses lose their wings, and the soul becomes embodied in human flesh. The degree to which the soul falls, and the "rank" of the mortal being it must then be embodied in is based on the amount of Truth it beheld while in the heavens. Could be compared to reincarnation. The degree of the fall also determines how long it takes for the horses to regrow their wings and once again take flight. Basically, the more Truth the charioteer beheld on his journey, the shallower his fall, and the easier it is for him to get up and get going again. The regrowth of the wings is hastened by the mortal soul encountering people and experiences that contain touches of divinity, and recall to his memory the Truth he beheld in his preexistence. Plato describes such moments as looking "through the glass dimly" and they hasten the soul's return to the heavens.

Dualism - Aquinas

Thought the soul animated the body and gave it life, he called the soul the 'anima'. "Now that the soul is what makes our body live; so the soul is the primary source of all these activities that differentiate levels of life: growth, sensation, movement, understanding mind or soul, it is the form of our body" - Summa Theologica, St Thomas Aquinas The soul operates independently of the body: believed only things that are divisible into parts decay. The soul is not divisible so therefore on the basis of his argument, the soul is able to survive death. Each soul is individual, so even when a body dies, the soul that departs retails the individual identity of the body to which it was attached.

consciousness

awareness of perception

The soul

often, but not always, understood to be the non-physical essence of a person.

The body

physical. materialists believe we are simply our bodies and nothing more - our bodies aren't 'the physical part' of us, because there are no other parts.

ANIMA, Dualism, Aquinas

that which animates the body

The mind

the part of a person which has intelligence and emotions. enables us to interpret the data we get from our senses so that we experience them: our minds form judgements, make choices and hold memories.