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’
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’
