Lesson 2: Plato: A dualist view

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From your AS knowledge, Explain to the person next to you, what might Plato believe about the soul?

Consider two ideas of PlatoConsider two ideas of Plato

• The Allegory of the Charioteer – the soul is simple yet complex

• The Phaedo – the soul is immortal and exists before the body

• Extension work – you could look at The Myth of Er

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• Dualist approach• Made distinction

between the two

• Physical – can only learn through physical sense experience

• In a constant state of change and therefore cannot be a source of knowledge

• Knows the truth through reason

• Capable of understanding the forms as they really are

• The soul can hold this knowledge and therefore must be unchanging and immortal

• Not only does it exist after death but pre – existed before birth

• People’s inner mental life is the most important thing about them

• Hopes, motives, opinions, emotions

• Referred to it as psyche/soul

• The real part of the person just temporarily attached to a physical body

• Immortal and destined to live on after death

• A guiding force, helping the mind and the body to work together

Plato distinction between body and soul

Plato distinction between body and soul

• Made distinction between the soul and the body – took a dualist approach

• Body and soul almost opposites• Soul has ability to know the truth and to understand the Forms as

they really are through reason• Body in contrast is physical and can learn only through physical

sense experience• Knowledge gained this way is inferior to knowledge gained through

reason – the senses can often be mistaken• The body is in a constant state of change and therefore cannot be

the source of knowledge• The soul is capable of certain knowledge - the soul must therefore

be unchanging and it is therefore immortal – not only existing after death but also pre existing before birth.

ReasonReason

SpiritSpiritDesireDesireIn the Republic, Plato describes the soul as ‘simple’ and without parts’. This means that it cannot be divided or split into different sections. However, he also described it as complex. If you think of a diamond, it is simple and without parts, yet still complex. Plato identified three parts of the soul.

Searches for the truthRules the soul

Includes aspects that can be trained such as agressiveness, honour, emotion

Seeking pleasure for yourself,Desire for what is necessary, like food, or unnecessary like luxury items

Three basic instincts which animate us into action.

Reason is the highest and superior of the three elements. It allows us to gain knowledge, distinguish from right and wrong and understand the forms.

Encourage us to look after the physical needs of our body – need to be kept in check

Allows us to love, inspires us to act out of courage – needs to be kept in check or we become reckless and conceited

The allegory of the charioteer

1.What type of approach did Plato take?

2.How did Plato believe the body gained knowledge?

3.What did he believe the soul was capable of?

4.The three parts of the soul are…5.What analogy did Plato use to

illustrate his idea of the way the three parts of the soul work together?

Without looking at your notes, answer the following questions

Disharmony of the soul…Disharmony of the soul…

• Plato suggested that the soul consists of various aspects: spirit, reason and desire. How could the following crimes be explained in terms of disharmony between the aspects of the soul?– Vandalism– Perjury– Fraud– Drink Driving– Rape– Murder

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• Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates his beliefs about the immortality of the soul

• Aimed to show that Socrates had not failed in his mission to educate people, even though he had been executed – his soul would continue to immortality after death

• Soul continues to live on in a state where it still has thought and intelligence – after death it is undisturbed by the distractions of bodily demands so it can reach it’s highest state

• It is the soul that gives people life and so the soul must continue to live after death

Argument from opposites

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The physical world consists of opposites

The opposite of alive is ….

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For death to be a thing rather than ‘nothing’ the soul must exist so it is possible to talk of life and death as opposites. Since life must become death and death become life, Plato suggests reincarnation: In Phaedo, he gives examples of tyrants being reincarnated as wolves and drunkards as donkeys, whereas the souls of philosophers who see the Forms enjoy the company of the gods.

Argument from Recollection

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True knowledge is innate, a priori. This is why we know the forms

Plato suggests that learning is just a matter of remembering. He suggests that there are things we know a priori, such as 2 + 2 = 4. However, we also know other things, like if we see two sticks of approximately equal length, we know that they are approximately equal in length because we have seen the idea of ‘equal’ in the WoF.

Is learning really a matter of remembering?

Argument from Affinity

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There is a difference between material and immaterialSort these words into two columns

immaterial

material

visible

invisibleperishable

mortalimmortal

Argument from Affinity

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There is a difference between material and immaterial

Plato argues that the soul is immortal, but immortality can take different forms. A soul that is not properly detached from the body will become a ghost that will long to return to the flesh, while the philosopher’s detached soul will dwell free in the heavens.

Simmias suggests that the soul may be immaterial and invisible in the same way as the attunement of an instrument. The attunement of the instrument can exist only as long as the instrument itself does.

Socrates, pointing out that his objection conflicts with the Theory of Recollection. The soul is not like the attunement of an instrument because the soul existed before the body did.

Look up the word ‘affinity’ what does it mean?

Theory of Forms

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The soul is eternal, invisible and immaterial.

That concept suggests that the soul is intimately connected to the Form of Life. Since the Form of Life does not in any way include its opposite—death—the soul cannot in any way be tainted by death. Thus, Socrates concludes, the soul must be immortal. Socrates illustrates his conception of the soul by means of a compelling myth that describes the earth we know as a poor shadow of the “true earth” above us in the heavens.

What do you think of Plato’s ideas? Which ideas are plausible to you?

Peter Geach rejects Plato!

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Plato has it wrong!

1) What can it mean for disembodied souls to see the Forms since seeing is a process linked with experience through the senses?

2) Is existence without a body really ‘human existence’?

Evaluate Plato and Geach. Who has the better argument? Why?

Write down everything we have covered today:

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You have 2 minutes!