2. Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: distinctions between body and soul, as expressed in the thinking of Plato, Aristotle, John Hick and Richard Dawkins; other concepts of the body/soul distinction; different views of life after death: resurrection and reincarnation; questions surrounding the nature of disembodied existence; the relationship between the afterlife and the problem of evil. Candidates should be

3. The world is like a picture with a golden background, and we the figures in the picture. Until you step off the plane of the picture into the large dimensions of death you cannot see the gold’. ‘ The world is like a picture with a golden background, and we the figures in the picture. Until you step off the plane of the picture into the large dimensions of death you cannot see the gold’. CS Lewis ‘The Problem of Pain’

5. Dualist approach Made distinction between the two

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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 exisiting after death but also pre existing before birth.

9. Reason Emotion Appetite

10. 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

13. 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?

16. 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

17. I’m not convinced Maybe the soul just simply dissolves or disperses like breath or smoke when we die?

18. Every quality comes into being from its own opposite or depends on its opposite to have any existence at all Here’s an example – something is ‘big’ because there are smaller things. Something is bright because there are duller things Therefore we can conclude that life comes from death and death comes from life – an endless chain of birth, death and rebirth

19. Task: Summarise the Myth of Er OR Create your own (short) dramatisation of it!

23. Aristotle gave the example of a wax tablet with a stamp impressed on it The shape made by the wax is inseparable from the wax …just as the soul is inseparable from the person

25. If an axe had a soul then that soul would involve chopping because that is the function of the axe.

26. Considered the soul to include the matter and structure of the body with its functions and capabilities Unlike Plato soul could be explained in purely natural terms rather than making reference to any supernatural realm

27. De Anima (On the Soul) began with ‘the soul is in some sense the principle of animal life’ Various kinds of soul Plants – vegetative or ‘nutritive’ soul – capability to get nourishment for themselves and ensure the reproduction of their species but no ability to reason or make plans

28. PlantsAnimalsHumans Vegetative or ‘nutritive’ soul – Capability to get nourishment for themselves and ensure the reproduction of their species but no ability to reason or make plans Perceptive souls Senses to experience the world around them and they react to different stimuli Enough intelligence to distinguish between pleasure and pain Higher degree soul The ability to reason and tell right from wrong

30. ‘It is not likely that Aristotle believed people could live after death in any personal sense’. Ahluwalia ‘To attain any assured knowledge of the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world’ (Aristotle De Anima Book 1)

31. The soul exists The soul has three parts Life after death is unlikely Souls are part of our physicality The soul doesn’t have a supernatural cause The soul and body cannot be separated Souls exist before we are born Reason is part of the soul Souls are immortal Dualist approach

36. Materialist view There is no part of a person that is non physical Consciousness cannot be separated from the brain – nothing exists except matter No life after death Once the brain dies, consciousness dies

38. Humans are nothing more than survival machines Completely discounts the idea that humans have any kind of soul Humans like other living creatures are the vehicles of genes Human beings do not have immortal souls and are simply a mixture of chemicals ‘survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve molecules known as genes’

39. ‘there is no spirit-driven life force, no throbbing, heaving, pullulating, protoplasmic, mystic jelly. Life is just bytes and bytes of digital information.’

40. Religious belief in ideas such as the immortality of the soul have no sound basis. They are beliefs based on wish fulfilment for those who lack courage, who fear death and who cannot cope with the idea of their own mortality.

44. Death and Eternal Life (1976) Accepts that the immortality of the soul is not something that can be proved in this life, but nevertheless he argues that it is something that is not unreasonable and something that a rational person can accept.

45. Soul grows and develops on Earth The whole of this earthly life is ‘a vale of soul – making’ A testing ground for people in which they develop their moral characters

46. ‘ somewhat Platonic view of the soul in which the soul and the body are seen as distinct but Hick gives it a more traditional Christian perspective by claiming the soul needs a body in order to continue with its journey in the afterlife’ Although Hick understands the soul to be capable of everlasting life with God, it is not unchanging in way Plato thought it was unchanging. There is an evolutionary process in which people learn and make conscious choices of their own free will until they reach a stage when they are able to live in a full relationship with God. For some this takes much longer than others A similar view to Plato?

48. ‘The Evolution of the Soul’ Soul and body are distinct from each other – soul can survive even when the body has died There are fundamental truths about us as individuals which cannot be explained in purely physical terms The most important and significant aspects of us which give us our identity are not to be found in our physical body

49. Logical, ordered complex thought Aware of its own freedom to make choices Recognise goodness Have a conscience