Self Death and the Afterlife

Self, Death and the Afterlife

Plato – Allegory of the cave

- Two worlds:
o The world in which we live is a world of superficial appearances
o The World of Forms is the real world which is eternal and perfect
- Our evidence based on our senses is a falsehood and we should seek real truth.
- Our world is a poor imitation of the World of Forms.

Dualism

 The soul is superior to and separate from the body and belongs to the World of Forms.
 The body is just a prison for the soul, which is eternal.
 The soul escapes the body when we die and returns to the World of Forms, after which it is either
born again into another body or remains to contemplate the Form of Good.

Soul

o The soul has three parts:
 Logical – rational thought
 Spirited (Thumos) – personality, emotions
 Appetitve – Id, desires
o The Logical side of the soul keeps the other parts in check.

Advantages of Plato’s dualism

 Evidence of separation exists in the New Testament.
 Supports the idea that corpses lack souls.

Disadvantages of Plato’s dualism

 There is no evidence of the World of Forms.
 It is perfectly logical to assume something based on senses otherwise there would be nothing else to
base our ideas on.

Descartes – Dualism (Interactionism)

 Argued that the mind and body are distinct substances with different essential properties.
 There is a scepticism about reality.
 Sense experience could be deceptive.
 Intellect-based ideas could be mistaken.
 Believed that the location of the soul was the pineal gland.

 Argument from Doubt
o You can doubt that you can exist
o The ability to doubt your existence means you are a thinking being
o Ergo, a thinking being is different to a physical being, you cannot doubt thinking
o “I think therefore I am”