1. Criticisms of Materialism: The way we use language suggests that we feel ourselves to be more than just a physical body. Descartes' observation that the mind and body have different properties and so cannot be the same substance is a valid point. Materialism cannot explain a chemical reaction can cause mental events. Swindburne and Ward argue that losing belief in the soul can have long lasting damage on ethics.
2. Used example of a university: someone is looking around a uni and sees the libararies and halls and then asks where the university is but all of the things make up the university.
3. Also believes that the body and soul can not be in the same category as they are too different and to broad of a tern to categorise this creates a category error
4. Thought that Descartes was wrong as he describes the body like a 'Ghost In a Machine'
5. Property Dualism - The view that there is one substance, which is matter, but that matter is split in two: physical and mental
6. Thought mind and soul could be connected by pineal gland but he was hazy about this
7. He could not be certain he had a body but he knew he had a mind because he was thinking with it: "I THINK THEREFORE I AM". If he knew he had a mind but wasn't sure about the soul how could they be connected.
8. He was a substance dualist who through a process of hyperbolic doubt (replacing knowledge with real truth).
9. DESCARTES
10. Two distinct substances with two distinct sets of properties
11. The body is material and has properties of extension (takes up space). The soul is immaterial and has properties of thought and emotion.
12. Types of soul: Plant- nutritive soul, so they have the ability to feed themselves. Animal- Perceptive soul because they can experience the world around them Humans- Highest degree of soul as they have the ability to reason
13. Analogies: Wax- when you stamp wax you can not seperate the wax from the stamp like you can't remove the soul from the body
14. The soul gives bodily matter its form, efficiency and telos. An axe's purpose is to chop, so a toy axe is not a real axe becasue it can't chop.
15. The soul gives a living thing its essence. The soul is not distinct from the body. It is the capacitites it has to do
16. Disagreed with Plato and thought the soul was a substance. (materialism)
17. Aristotle
18. Substance Dualism
19. Gilbert Ryle
20. Criticisms of Dualism: Our experience of ourselves does not feel like we are two seperate beings. But as Decartes said our senses can trick us. Cannot explain how the mind and body work together for example why feeling afraid makes our heart race. 'Problem of other minds'- how can we be certain other people have minds if we are completely seperate to our body. Distinction between mental and physical is not always clear.
21. Supernatural soul = soul one and the materialist view= soul 2 the one Dawkins believes.
22. He rejects the idea that we need to think of a supernatural soul if we are explaining what it means to be human
23. Dawkins argue that we are survival machines and are only interested in reproduction
24. No life after death as that would require death of the mind
25. Mental states e.g. memory, correspond to different activities in the brain. Chemical reactions are the same thing, but not caused by them
26. The mind is not distinct from the body but is identical with it
27. Reductive Materialism
28. Emergent Materialism- View that new properties emerge from physical matter as it becomes more complex and the mind and body are diffrent but not seperate
29. Meno- An uneducated slave boy is given a puzzle and is able to work it out. so plato thought that his soul must have enocuntered this before in the realm of the forms.
30. Tripartite view of the soul- chariot racer: the charioteer= reason; the two horses= emotion and apetitie. So reason has to control the other two.
31. Plato
32. Thought that life and deeath was an endless chain
33. Soul has capactiy to leave physical body after death and go to realm of forms
