100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Summary A* Soul, mind and body notes £9.48
Add to cart

Summary

Summary A* Soul, mind and body notes

 0 purchase

I am predicted A* and have got A* in all of my mocks and have completed my A level exams in 2022. These notes are 5-10 pages and include everything on the specification: * the philosophical language of soul, mind and body in the thinking of Plato and Aristotle * metaphysics of consciousness,...

[Show more]

Preview 2 out of 12  pages

  • June 30, 2022
  • 12
  • 2021/2022
  • Summary
All documents for this subject (137)
avatar-seller
sarahlanghart
Soul, Mind and Body
Key Terms:
Substance Dualism - belief that there are 2 ‘things’, body and soul.
Monism - belief that there is only one ultimate reality, 1 substance
Materialism - form of monism - all that exists is matter.
Idealism - a different form of monism - all that exists is mind/spirit.
Panpsychism - everything has a soul.
Hylomorphism - Aristotle’s doctrine that the soul is the ‘form’ of the body.

Plato and the soul:
• Plato’s understanding of the soul connects to his belief in the 2 worlds
(dualism)
• Analogy of the cave can have personal meaning as well as whole of reality.
• The soul is the real you.
• Hence ‘I have a body’ not ‘I am a body’
• The mind is able to access the other world by reason.

Plato on the body:
• “The body and its desires are the only cause of wars and factions and
battles; for all wars arise for the sake of gaining money, and we are
compelled to make money for the sake of the body. We are slaves to its
service. And so because of all these things we have no leisure for
philosophy…” (Phaedo extract in ‘Body, Mind and death)

Philosopher’s attitude to death:
• “the true philosophers and they alone are always most eager to release
the soul….In fact the true philosophers practise dying, and death is less
terrible to them than to other men.” - Socrates

Influences on Plato:
• Heraclitus: “You cannot step in to the same river twice” - Everything
changes
• Parmenides explained everything by reducing it to one thing, nothing
changes = monism.
• Plato combined these 2 philosophies with his doctrine of 2 worlds.

Arguments against Plato:
• Bertrand Russel article against life after death:
• Belief in life after death is based on ‘wishful thinking’
• Plato confuses the universal ‘Man’ with the particular ‘soul’. But
these are different things and arguments for one do not prove the
existence of the other.

• Plato on the Soul:

, Support for Plato’s other world?
• “I imagine that whenever the mind perceives a mathematical idea, it
makes contact with Plato’s world of mathematical concepts… When one
‘sees’ a mathematical truth, one’s consciousness breaks though into this
world of ideas, and makes direct contact with it.” (Sir Roger Penrose -
mathematician)
• perfect circle
• concept of equality

Inner conflict:
• Conflicting desires - illustrates dualism bodily desires get in the way of
philosophy. Death is a ‘release’ from this conflict. (Phaedo)
• 3 parts of the soul are in conflict: reason, spirit and desire. The soul
(Reason) is the charioteer trying to stop them going in different directions.
Desire (one of the horses) caused the fall into bodies. e.g thirsty man
knows that water is poisoned. Reason wants to understand the truth but
Desire (appetites of the body) gets in the way.
• Spirit can be positive (heroism) or negative (eg anger) so can be trained by
Reason.
• The ‘just’ man is one who has all 3 in harmony.

Support for Conflict idea - Freud:
• Agrees with Plato that there is conflict.
• Agrees on the 3 parts to a person.
• Agrees that passions should be restrained in the interests of society.
• If you repress too much this will lead to neurosis. Need for balance (also
agrees)

Criticisms of Conflict idea - David Hume (empiricist):
• “Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
• Meaning: there is no conflict. Mankind is only “a bundle of perceptions”
• Desire is part of who you are and is therefore legitimate.

Plato’s ‘evidence’ for dualism:
1. Cycle of opposites - Every quality comes into existence from its own
opposite e.g. cannot have small things without big things. Awake people
were once asleep. Therefore people who are dead were once alive.
Body is mortal and subject to physical death so the soul must be
its indestructible opposite, using this logic it it affirms that the soul is
(like the Forms which are eternal and unchanging) imperishable, further
supporting the Plato’s argument about the relationship between the
World Of Forms and the soul.
2. Linguistic argument - We use language about ourselves which implies
a distinction. ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘me’ ‘my body’

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller sarahlanghart. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for £9.48. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

69252 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy revision notes and other study material for 15 years now

Start selling
£9.48
  • (0)
Add to cart
Added