Plato & Aristotle

DUALISM
1. Plato
  1. Differentiation between the body and soul links closely to his differentiation between the world of Forms and the world of appearances
    1. Body gains knowledge not through reason but through the SENSES. Plato said that since senses change, they cannot always be trusted.
      1. "The prison of the soul": weak because of its desires and flaws, gets in the way of who we truly are and detracts from our power of thinking.
    2. Soul has access to the world of Forms and has objective knowledge, thanks to our ability to REASON
      1. 1. REASON - helps us work out right from wrong, helps us see the world of Forms and helps us gain knowledge
      2. 2. EMOTION - gives us the ability to love, be courageous etc. - but can lead to recklessness
      3. 3. APPETITE - makes us look after the physical needs of our bodies - but can lead to hedonism
  2. Four arguments for the existence of the soul
    1. The Linguistic Argument: the fact that we use language about ourselves which suggests a distinction. I, we, me refers to an inner, separate reality.
    2. The Knowledge Argument: Somehow within the world of flux and change we can grasp these universals which are not affected by time and space; so there must be something within us that is equally unaffected by flux and change that has the ability to grasp them.
    3. The Argument from Recollection: Because we know the universals we must have seen them before.
    4. Cycle of Opposites: We know things by their opposites. Death must come from life and life from death.
      1. This suggests a perpetual recycling of human souls from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead and back.
  3. Soul has existed prior to being in the present body and, on death, will leave the body.
    1. Myth of Er
      1. Souls are judged; morally good people are rewarded, while immoral people are punished. Souls can choose their new life before being reborn
2. Notion that humans have composite natures (the material part is the physical body and the non-material part is the mind/soul). The mind and body both exist though and are linked in some way.
MONISM
1. Humans beings are made of one substance, the physical body
  1. They reject the concept of life after death –there is no scientific evidence for the ‘soul’: believe in only one substance, matter
    1. All experiences, emotions and thoughts are derived from our brains and that everything can be explained by the mental activity of the brain
    2. = therefore dualism is incorrect as it postulates the existence of matter and a non-physical substance
  2. A person’s identity is inextricably linked to their physical body so when the body dies, their life ends
2. Materialist argument
  1. Not accepting survival after death
    1. Life depends on a functioning brain, nervous system and physical body.
      1. Death involves the destruction of the brain, the nervous system and physical body.
        Therefore a person’s life ends at death, as without a physical form life cannot be supported.
  2. View that all contents of the universe are physical
3. Aristotle (dualist/monist?)
  1. Made up of two things a body (matter) and a soul or ‘psyche’ (the form), and (unlike Plato) the soul is an integral part of the body
    1. Soul gives the body life, and dies when we do: similar to the Platonic idea of the soul giving us true knowledge
    2. Called the soul the function of the body, just like the function of an axe is to chop
      1. Comparing to as a stamp in wax: the shape is imprinted on the wax just as our souls are imprinted in us - the two cannot be separated.
        The soul animates the body, by organising a potential living body into an actual living body
  2. Later argued that rational thought (nous) may be separated from the body after death
    1. While emotions and sensations cannot survive beyond death, perhaps mental activity can
      1. Similar to the Platonic view that the soul is more important than the body, and may be able to exceed death

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Plato & Aristotle

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	Created by May Yuen almost 11 years ago