The Philosophical Language of soul, Mind and Body
‘to attain any assured knowledge of the soul is one of the most difficult things
in the world.’ Aristotle
Plato’s View of the Soul
- Plato was a dualist, the soul and body were entirely separate
- Soul is temporarily united to a body but is from and goes back to the World of
Forms
- The Charioteer as a metaphor for the soul. The dark horse represents physical
appetites, and the white horse represents higher virtues and they’re both
pulled by the charioteer (reason) which controls them. This is a tripartite
model for the soul.
- ‘the body is the source of endless trouble… is liable also to diseases… in
fact as men say, takes away from us all power of thinking at all.’ Plato
Strengths
1. Plato’s story of the Slave Boy to illustrate his claim that knowledge is
innate within the soul.
2. As humans become more mature they make more rational decisions based
on reason which seem more ordered, suggesting there is a soul/substance
that wants things beyond our physical body.
3. Life after death is far more plausible as it’s not reliant on any kind of
bodily continuity after death.
4. Swinburne thinks the notion of a separate, metaphysical soul
encapsulates all of the aspects of self-awareness, morality and
consciousness which is separate from our physicality.
5. Aligns with Christian teachings that God made us with the ‘spirit of God.’
6. There is a permanent, immutable part of us. If our identity is reliant on
the body in any sense than it goes through processes of decay and change
and is therefore impermanent.
7. The Aesthetic Principle is an example of our souls recognises the Form of
the Good due to the soul’s innate knowledge (anamnesis)
8. The Chariot analogy helps explain the human experience of inner conflict
Weaknesses
1. Keeping the physical and metaphysical separate provides no explanation
for how they interact in the body.
2. Flew argues it is non-sensical for our soul to continue to the afterlife
without our body. Flew uses the Cheshire Cat’s grin to illustrate his point,
‘it makes no sense of grin occurring without the faces of which grins
constitute one possible kind of configuration.’
‘to attain any assured knowledge of the soul is one of the most difficult things
in the world.’ Aristotle
Plato’s View of the Soul
- Plato was a dualist, the soul and body were entirely separate
- Soul is temporarily united to a body but is from and goes back to the World of
Forms
- The Charioteer as a metaphor for the soul. The dark horse represents physical
appetites, and the white horse represents higher virtues and they’re both
pulled by the charioteer (reason) which controls them. This is a tripartite
model for the soul.
- ‘the body is the source of endless trouble… is liable also to diseases… in
fact as men say, takes away from us all power of thinking at all.’ Plato
Strengths
1. Plato’s story of the Slave Boy to illustrate his claim that knowledge is
innate within the soul.
2. As humans become more mature they make more rational decisions based
on reason which seem more ordered, suggesting there is a soul/substance
that wants things beyond our physical body.
3. Life after death is far more plausible as it’s not reliant on any kind of
bodily continuity after death.
4. Swinburne thinks the notion of a separate, metaphysical soul
encapsulates all of the aspects of self-awareness, morality and
consciousness which is separate from our physicality.
5. Aligns with Christian teachings that God made us with the ‘spirit of God.’
6. There is a permanent, immutable part of us. If our identity is reliant on
the body in any sense than it goes through processes of decay and change
and is therefore impermanent.
7. The Aesthetic Principle is an example of our souls recognises the Form of
the Good due to the soul’s innate knowledge (anamnesis)
8. The Chariot analogy helps explain the human experience of inner conflict
Weaknesses
1. Keeping the physical and metaphysical separate provides no explanation
for how they interact in the body.
2. Flew argues it is non-sensical for our soul to continue to the afterlife
without our body. Flew uses the Cheshire Cat’s grin to illustrate his point,
‘it makes no sense of grin occurring without the faces of which grins
constitute one possible kind of configuration.’
