Aristotle has a monist approach to the soul, unlike Plato he says that the soul cannot exist without the body. The soul is not a body but something that belongs in a body, comparable to the brain; it is necessary and is within all humans and it gives us reason, intellect and an innate sense of justice. This therefore can make his theory more convincing than Plato’s as the soul isn’t ‘immortal’ and dies along with the body, thereby eliminating the theory of reincarnation which is hard for anyone who isn’t Hindu to believe as it is contradictory to their religious views. Aristotle states that all reason is associated with the pure thought of the Prime Mover and the soul is what gives the body its shape and form; he argued that the soul is not a substance but the reason and shape behind the matter. Best described by using the example of a marble statue, as the marble stature is essentially a block of marble but it has a shape and form and like the body the soul, the shape and form cannot be removed from what the statue is, in the same way the body cannot be separated from the soul.
Critically access the view that humans have immortal souls (35 marks) People who support the idea of an immortal soul think that that the soul is a distinct and immortal entity within the body (dualism) which can survive the death of the body and ascend to the afterlife. However, this theory would be greatly opposed by those who believe in materialism, the belief that we as humans exist as a single unit of body and soul which cannot be separated. The first major argument in favour of an immortal soul was given by the philosopher Plato. Plato believed that the soul was imprisoned within the body and that the ultimate goal of the soul was to be released at death back to the world of the Forms where it could be reunited with the Form of the Good (God). Thus the body which is purely material dies for Plato and the soul returns to the world of the Forms and is immortal.
Therefore, learning is actually only remembering what the soul already knew from the World of the Forms. Secondly, the body and soul are opposites: Plato used the example of light and dark – the concept of light makes us aware of darkness. Therefore, in a similar way, life and death are opposites: those who are dead used to be alive, and those who are alive used to be dead but experienced the concept of being born again. There does seem to be a
Critically assess the claim that the soul is distinct from the body The claim that the soul is distinct from the body is a dualist belief supported by Descartes and Plato, but is refuted by monists like Aristotle and materialists such as Richard Dawkins. I believe that the soul is distinct from the body because the soul is eternal and continues in the after life, whereas the body is temporary and decays. Descartes supports his belief as he argues that the body is spatial meaning that is exists in space, whereas the mind or soul is conscious meaning we have knowledge of it. This is a dualist view as he argues that although the body and the mind/soul are separate, they interact with the brain. A strength of his argument is that it allows for mental continuity between life and the afterlife because the soul as well as the body interacts with the brain.
PHIL201 Discussion Board 1 The Mind-Body Problem Jeff Britt Picard’s beliefs are based on the Materialism view of the “Mind-Body Problem”. A materialist believes “that humans have both physical and mental attributes but says that both are attributes of the same thing – namely, a living human organism (Hasker, pp. 69 – 70).” Picard viewed Data as his equal. They may have had a different birth, or beginning, but the result is the same; a person that has the ability to make have feelings and make decisions for themselves. Data’s “brain” is no different than Picard’s; it is a component of their physical state and not linked to a soul that is given by God or another higher power.
Plato argues that rather than being taught how to perceive things such as beauty or morality, through our physical senses, we instinctively have a general grasp of them through the theoretical form. In other words, the beautiful things we can see are beautiful only because they are part of the more general Form of Beauty. This Form of Beauty is itself invisible, eternal, and unchanging, unlike the things in the visible world that can grow old and lose their beauty. The Theory of Forms envisions an entire world of such Forms, a world that exists outside of time and space, where Beauty, Justice, Courage, Temperance, and the like exist untarnished by the changes and imperfections of the visible world. Plato also suggested that the theoretical form was never ending, unlike the physical form which starts at our conception/birth and ends at the moment that we die.
“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works work is dead.” This quote from James 2:26 can be seen to support the view that the body and the mind work together, and without them both, we cannot function properly. The mind is more like a spirit than it is a brain. It can be said that the ‘mind’ refers to the part of the body that is capable of thought. It deals with our emotions and what state of mind we are in e.g. happy, sad, angry, or excited.
Melinda will use Plato’s theory that there is more to the human being then just flesh and blood, there is a soul that exist. There is a metaphysical aspect of the human cell. Everything had to be a first move nothing comes from nothing. How do you know if souls exist? Today we could say this is part of the “what if” factor, what if they let Matthew die what happens to his soul or just plain Matthew?
Miller maintains that what ensures personal identity is the soul. He tells Weirob that “your mind or soul is immaterial, lodged in your body while you are on earth” (Perry 7). Miller expounds on this assertion by saying that the body is separate from the soul. Because they are separate Miller believes it stands that a body is not needed to equal survive as long as the soul continues to exist. Weirob, however, disagrees with this view, instead believing that it is the body that ensures identity.
Descartes tried to prove that the thinking self is separate from the physical, through his statement, “I think therefore I am”. Plato was a dualist, as he believed that the soul existed in a realm of forms before coming into the body. He believed that the body has an affinity (understanding) with the earth and that the soul has an affinity with the eternal realm of forms. At death, he believed the body dispersed to the earth, and the soul returns to the realm containing the truths. Materialism, distinct from the other views of what constitutes human life, argues that there is no separate soul - the body is just matter.