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Self, death, and the afterlife - Coggle Diagram
Self, death, and the afterlife
The nature and existence of the soul: Descartes' argument for the existence of the soul
Descartes' argument for the existence of the soul
Cartesian dualism
'Cogito ergo sum'
Humans are defined by thought
A source of truth that is beyond doubt
Foundationalism
Used doubt as a means of trying to find truths that cannot be doubted
Methodological scepticism
If we can doubt the physical world, but we cannot doubt ourselves as thinking thins, then it must be that the physical world and the world of thought are different
The divisibility argument
Physical matter is divisible
Thoughts do no take up space and are not divisible
So, mind and body are different things
The conceivability argument
I can conceive of myself existing without a body
eg. Evil demon
I can't conceive of myself existing without a mind
To conceive is to exist in the mind
Thus, I am a mind and not a body
The 3 waves of doubt
The argument from illusion
Sometimes we experience illusions that are not real
Our senses have fooled us before, so we cannot be 100% sure they are not fooling us now
The argument from dreaming
We feel the same degree of certainty that the world we are experiencing is real that we do when we are dreaming
Our dreams aren't real so this feeling of certainty can be doubted
The evil demon/ brain-in-a-vat
It is possible that our experiences are entirely false
We could be a brain-in-a-vat with false experiences being fed to us by an evil demon
No sensation could prove this false
Dawkins' soul 1 and soul 2
Soul 1
Cartesian dualism
Responsible for religious belief in the afterlife, and conflict between religions.
Soul 2
Physical matter
At some future point neuroscientist will explain consciousness in physical terms.
Soul: emotions; feels; ambition; hopes; desires; fears
Humanist account of the soul... We are all humans. We all matter as humans.
The body/soul relationship
Critical analysis of Cartesian Dualism
Physicalism
The mind can be reduced to physical explanations
There is no need to appeal to a disembodied mind
Behaviourism
All mind can be reduced to observable behaviour
Behaviour can be studied empirically
Thus, the mind can be studied and known
Gilbert Ryle's Oxford University analogy
Imagine showing someone around Oxford University’s colleges and libraries.
Afterward, they're asked, “Where is the University?”
This question doesn’t make sense because the University is the colleges and libraries, just as a person’s mind is shown through their behavior.
Asking "Where is the mind?" after observing behavior is illogical.
The mind and behavior are not separate categories; behavior is the mind in action.
Gilbert Ryle's Ghost-in-the-machine argument
Mind and body obviously interact
The mind must be physical, or else it would be like a ghost trying to operate a machine
There is no body/soul relationship
The mind can be explained and described in terms of matter
Descartes' Interactionism
Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia
Like the ghost-in-the-machine argument, questions how a non-physical mind could interact with a physical body
Descartes' response
Suggests the pineal gland controls the brain
But this does not work
Shows no explanation or evidence as to why it takes place here
Chalmers' Hard Problem of Consciousness
How does the physical world create consciousness?
How does something physical produce subjective states of mind (eg. colour)
How can we physically explain qualia?
Qulia
Aspects of subjective experience
Defy physical explanations
'Mary in the black and white room'
Does Mary learn something new upon seeing color for the first time, despite knowing all the scientific facts about it?
She knows everything there is to know about color, such as its physical and neurological properties.
One day, Mary leaves the room and sees color for the first time.
Nagel's 'What it's like to be a bat'
Consciousness is subjective, and no amount of physical or objective knowledge can capture the what it’s like aspect of experience.
The possibility of continuing personal existence after death
Spinoza
Griffin's subjective vs objective immortality
Objective immortality = Continuation of something impersonal (e.g., a soul or essence).
Subjective immortality = Continuation of personal consciousness and experience after death.
Objective immortality
For humans, actions/thoughts/ideas exist externally as objects in the memory of the eternal God
John Hick's replica theory
Since God is all powerful, it would be possible for him to create a replica body of a dead person in a place of resurrected persons
Without need for a soul
Swinburne's light bulb analogy
Argues people do not need brains in order for their conscious souls to function
The soul exists if normal bodily processes or available artificial techniques can bring the man to be conscious
The soul will function if plugged into a functioning brain
But no human knows how to move a soul from one body and plug it into another
An omnipotent God is
Investigation into the nature of the soul does not reveal those ways and humans cannot discover what else is needed to get souls to function again