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Self, Death and the Afterlife (The possibility of continuing personal…

- - - - Descartes' argument from doubt does not work, as most modern philosophers think that the mind is produced by the brain, and if the mind is part of the brain and the brain is part of the body, then the mind cannot doubt that it's body exists as they are one and the same
    - - His argument from divisibility and non-divisibility also does not work, as neuroscience strongly suggests that that there is a close correlation between the mind and the brain, as if the brain is damaged, the mind is damaged also, for example degenerative diseases such as dementia, which affects our memories, and concussion, etc - this would suggest that our mind and body are one and the same, and cannot be separated
    - - This doesn't work either, as Descartes starts his argument by presupposing that God exists, and therefore his argument is circular, as it does not prove anything. This is known as the cartesian circle
  - - - Aristotle was a monist, and he believed that a soul is what makes somebody or something distinct, and gives it its essential nature. Aristotle describes the nature of the soul through an analogy in which he compares the eye to an animal, and in this scenario, sight would be its soul, as sight is the substance of the eye, and when seeing is removed from the eye, the eye is no longer an eye. Aristotle is saying that the soul of a person is an essential part of what makes the person them, and therefore, the body and soul cannot exist without each other. This would mean that there cannot be any personal existence after death. Aristotle believed that the soul and the body were distinct, but are not separable
    - - Plato was a dualist, and he came up with the idea of the World of Forms to support his idea. Plato theorised that whilst the physical body is part of the world of senses, the soul is part of a higher reality which he calls the World of Forms. Plato says that when we are born, our soul is born into our body, and when we die, our souls leave our bodies and re-enter the world of forms
- - - - Descartes' interactionism does not work as an explanation of how the soul and body interact, as simply pointing out where they interact does not solve the problem of how they interact
      - Modern science now tells us that the pineal gland is associated with the production of melatonin, which regulates our sleep patterns. Therefore, Descartes must be wrong about the pineal gland being the place where the soul interacts with the body
        
        However, Descartes may be right that there is a specific part of the brain where the body and soul interact, just not in the pineal gland
  - - - Avoids Descartes' problem of how the two substances interact because there are no separate substances
- - - - Hick's replica theory does not fit with he story of Jesus' resurrection in the bible, as Jesus' body was apparently missing, suggesting that his actual body was resurrected, and not simply replicated