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Mind, Body and Soul - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Plato's argument from recollection - we have ideas of perfect things - like a perfect circle or perfect justice - but we have never seen a perfect circle or perfect goodness
        
        So, we must have got these ideas from the World of the Forms - where there are perfect forms of circles and goodness
        
        So, there must be a part of us - our soul - which was in the World of the Forms before we were born
  - - - Perfect goodness will mean different people
        
        So, there cannot be a perfect form of goodness - so his argument for the soul
- - - - Stamp in wax analogy - the body is like wax and the soul is like the imprint in wax left by the stamp
        
        The imprint is not a separate unique thing itself - it is just the form the wax has. Same foes for the soul
- - - - So, the mind cannot be a physical thing
- - - - However - Ryle says Descartes has not realised that there's another option
        
        The mind might not be a thing at all...
        
        Descartes has made a 'category mistake'. He has put the mind in the category of 'things' when it might not be in that category
        
        Ryle illustrates this with someone being shown round a university who says they have seen the physics building and the biology building etc., but now they want to be shown the university. This person has made a category mistake - they haven't realised that the term 'university' belongs to the category of 'collection of buildings' rather then 'individual building'
- - - - Soul 2 is a metaphorical idea of the soul, as a metaphor for the deep part of our mind and personally where the essence of our humanity is
        
        For example, someone who doesn't believe in a soul might say "I felt that in my soul" or "Hitler was a soulless person". They are just using the term 'soul' metaphorically for our deep important human feelings, not for some non-physical part of soul 1. Dawkins thinks that everything about us, including our minds and consciousness, is nothing mor than biological processes in our body
        
        It's not valid to think the soul 'literally' exists, it's only valid to use the word metaphorically to describe deep human feelings
  - - - The 'easy problem of consciousness' means figuring out which brain process is responsible for which mental process such as memory, perception or emotion
        
        The 'hard problem of consciousness' refers to what brain process is responsible for consciousness itself
        
        Chalmers says that neuroscience has helped with solving the easy problem of consciousness but it hasn't even begun to explain the hard problem of consciousness
        
        So, scientists like Dawkins can't claim to know that consciousness is just a physical bodily thing, since science doesn't currently have a scientific explanation of consciousness