MATERIALISM

ARISTOTLE

  • Every living thing has a soul( a 'psyche')
  • The soul represents the body structure and varies from thing to thing
  • E.G plants have simple should, animals more complex souls and human souls with the ability to reason
  • When the body dies so does the soul- one cannot work without the other, they need each other
  • Therefore doesn't believe in life after death
  • View that the mind cannot be separate from the body
  • humans made of 1 substance- the body

RYLE

  • Critiqued dualism, especially Descartes' substance dualism
  • Ridiculed it by calling it a the ghost[mind] in the machine[body]
  • He felt that to speak of minds and bodies as though they were equivalent was a 'category mistake''
  • Ryle told the story of someone being shown around a university
  • After they had been shown the various buildings, they then asked ‘but where is the university?’
  • They had mistakenly thought the university belonged to the category of ‘building’, rather than in the category of ‘a collection of buildings’.
  • The mind is a term from another category, a way of describing bodies and the way they operate - you should not expect to find a 'mind' over and above all various parts of the body and its actions
  • Rejects the idea of a soul
  • all mental events are physical events interpreted in a mental way
  • believes an individual is a physical living being and no more
  • so when the body dies that's it- the whole person is dead

DAWKINS [hard materialist]

  • Believed all life is simply physical matter made up of DNA.
  • We are the survival machines for this DNA- 'gene machines' driven by our genes to protect and duplicate themselves
  • Evolution filters in good genes and filters out the bad
  • Believes in a conscience
  • Once the DNA has developed in the brain, it can begin to this for itself as an individual and consider the consequences of its own actions
  • individual humans cannot survive life after death as we are purely just a product of genes

  • The idea of the soul is a mythical concept which provides us with a convenient explanation for the mysteries of personality and conscience



    • SOUL 1: View that the soul is a real thing seperate from the body, which Dawkins ejects due ti a lack of evidence


    • SOUL 2: Metaphorical idea of the soul, as a metaphor for the deep part of our mind and personality where the essence of humanity is (Meaningful way f describing the souk)





  • uses analogy of the development of computers to suggest possible explanation of the human brain and consciesness
  • there will be an advance in science where sciententist will be able to make statements and give explanations

HICK [soft materialist]

  • The soul cannot be seperated from the body
  • Proposed a 'Replica theory' : death will destroy us completely but God willl recreate us in heavenly space
  • At the point of death on earth, God creates an exact replica of that person in heavenly space
  • therefore it is possible for the dead to exist after death as themsleves
  • replica is places in a special, separate space (different 'plane' of existance'
  • Main problem of the theory is if God supposedly did create a new me, would it really be me? or would be someone a lot like me?
  • Hick asserts that the replica he speaks of is not the same as a replica where one could create hundreds
  • he maintains there can only be one you because we s humans are individuals- we would only ever be just one of our several versions
  • ignores question of punishment or judgement for sins
  • No matter how evil someone is in their past life, their replica will exist in the resurrection world no matter what
  • this seems unfair particularly when applies to an omnibenevlent god
  • no point of good on earth if eschatological reward is the same for all