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TOPIC 1 - SOUL, MIND AND BODY (PLATONIC UNDERSTANDING OF MIND, BODY AND…

- - - - Knowledge is simply a recollection of what we already know (a priori). Plato evidenced this by the human recognition of equality, despite never having experienced or witnessed any two things that are perfectly equal. In spite of this, we know what true equality (the Form of Equality) must be.
  - - - The mind wants to understand ideas, whereas the body is interested in gaining sense pleasures. Sometimes, the demands of the body are so great that they overtake completely.
        PLATO: "the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food... takes away from us the power of thinking at all."
    - - The soul is immortal and unchanging, so can know and be known.
      - The mind is mortal but through the influence of the soul can achieve an awareness of eternal truths. Whilst the mind and body are physical and perishable, the soul must be separate because it is immortal.
      - The soul is the direct driving force behind the body. Plato used the example of the charioteer to embody his concept; a man (representing the soul) drives two horses, (will and desire), to balance. The horses are content with their current state of existence, and much like the prisoners from Plato's allegory of the cave, they do not wish to seek knowledge, and are content with the shadow world, adhering to bodily desires.
      - The soul is immortal and so exists before, during and after it is trapped within a body. Once trapped, the soul (psyche) begins to remember the Realm of the Forms which it once inhabited, and longs to return to this perfect world. Thus, the soul is dissatisfied with the limitations of the body and the world of appearances, which is why Plato believes Socrates did not oppose drinking poison, as his soul was released to return to the Realm of the Forms.
      - The soul has three parts: reason, emotion and desire.
    - - The body is in a constant state of change, so cannot be the source of reliable truth. The body is also the physical component of every person.
      - The person is separate and distinct from the body that it inhabits, as denoted in our use of language, for example, we cremate the remains of a person, not the person, and we say 'I have a hand' not 'I am a hand'.
- - - - Materialistic approach to the debate, believing that the body and soul are not two separate elements, but one thing.
        
        ARISTOTLE: "We can dismiss as wholly unnecessary the question whether the body and soul are one: it is as meaningless to ask whether the wax and the shape given to it by the stamp are one."
    - - The soul must be the structure of the body, its form and its organisation, turning a physical form into a living organism of its particular type.
      - Aristotle proposed a hierarchy of souls.
        
        Human Souls: Additional powers of reason (logos) through which the individual can develop their intellect and ethical character.
        
        Animal Souls: An appetite with desires and feelings, giving animation.
        
        Plant Souls: A vegetative state with the powers of growth, nutrition and reproduction.
        
        It is unclear whether Aristotle believed reason to be immortal. If reason did live on after a person dies, however, it does not seem to be in a personal manner with a recognizable identity. It is through the human capability for reason that we come to understand universal truths. This could link in with the Buddhist concept of Karma.
        
        For the Ancient Greeks, the psyche (our sensations and emotions) were on the 'body' side of the mind/body dualism. Nous (mental activity) was distinguished from the body and its sensations; many thought that it was this aspect of the soul that survived death.
      - ARISTOTLE: "Suppose then that the eye were an animal - sight would have been its soul... when seeing is removed the eye is no longer the eye, except in name - it is no more a real eye than the eye of a statue or a painted figure."
      - Aristotle did not think the soul was immortal nor separable from the body, as it is the soul that makes the body a person rather than just material. Therefore, without the body, the soul cannot exist.
      - Did not believe in the concept of an after life.
    - - Cognitive neuroscience has shown clear thinks between the brain and the body, so how can the mind survive on its own?
- - - - Gnostics believe the material body is not derived from God, and that only the purely spiritual is of Him.
      - Manicheanists believe in an eternal spiritual conflict between a good cosmic god and an evil material one.
      - Jewish believers do not distinguish the body from the soul, and neither do the Gospels - Christ's redemption is of people, not souls.
  - - - The mind and soul are not anything separate from each other. Aquinas adopted an Aristotelian approach to the mind body debate, perhaps referencing the four causations.
        
        AQUINAS: "...the human soul, which is called the intellect, or the mind, is something incorporeal and subsistent."
        
        AQUINAS: "...the soul is defined as the first principle of life in living things...to be a principle of life, or to be a living thing, does not belong to a body as a body... when it is a living body, it owes its life to some principle which is called its 'act'..." Here Aquinas argues that the body and soul are inseparable, adopting a dualistic, materialist approach.
        
        AQUINAS: "...sensation is not the operation of the soul only.. sensation is an operation of man... it is clear that man is not a soul only, but something composed of soul and body..."
      - The catholic church rejected Aquinas' teachings of the mind, body and soul, and branded then as potentially heretical concepts.
- - - - DESCARTES: "I am not aware of any parts in me - that is, I understand myself to be one whole person."
      - DESCARTES: "if a... limb were amputated from my body, nothing would be taken from my mind"
      - DESCARTES: "...it is always the same mind that wills, senses or understands... the mind is wholly different from the body."
    - - The mind incorporates all the feelings and sensations that can be described but not located physically.
      - Everything non-physical becomes part of the mind.
      - DESCARTES: "I think therefore I am" - Believed that the mind is distinct from the body, although the two interact.
      - Claimed that mental reality is not empirical and therefore not in the world of place. The mind is not located within the body and is not the same as the brain. (This is an example of Descartes taking influence from Plato!)
    - - DESCARTES: "There is a little gland in the brain where the soul exercises its functions more particularly than in the other parts of the body."
      - Descartes believed that the pineal gland is the seat of the imagination and common sense - here it perhaps becomes the link between the body and soul. Descartes argued that all the parts of our brain are double: there are two bodily organs for each sense, but our mind perceives only a single thought or impression. As the pineal organ is the part of the brain that is singular, it must be the home of the single thought.