1. Do you consider yourself more than ‘a body with a nervous system’
Is an emotion more than a chemical reaction in your brain?
Respond to both of these questions.
How do they link to your understanding of what we have been studying?

2. Can I survive my death?
Dualism: argues that human beings consist of a body and soul/ centre of identity/spiritual component. LAD is possible if the soul can survive.
Monism: human beings minds or centres of identity cannot be separated from the body. LAD is only possible if the whole human can survive.

3. Plato- Dualism The soul is distinct from the body
The soul is immortal, the body is mortal
The human is a soul, ‘imprisoned’ in a body
The goal of the soul is the world of the forms
Knowledge of the forms comes from the soul, when we learn we are remembering what we saw in the form world
The body distracts the soul from seeking the forms.
‘For the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food; and also is liable to diseases which overtake and impede us in the search after truth: and by filling us so full of loves, and lusts, and fears, and fancies, and idols, and every sort of folly, prevents our ever having, as people say, so much as a thought.’ (Plato, Phaedo)

4. The chariot
A true philosopher avoids distractions from the body and concentrates his energy on gaining knowledge of the forms
His chariot analogy illustrates the divide between the desires of the soul and the desires of the body.
The soul is a chariot driver trying to direct the two horses: mind and body.
Who can draw the best image and annotate to represent the analogy Plato makes?

5. Plato’s description of the soul
In the Republic Plato describes the soul as ‘simple’ and ‘without parts’. Meaning it cannot be split up.
Later he describes the soul as ‘complex’. Meaning there are different aspects to it.
The evidence for these comes from the conflict within the soul
Kenny gives the example of a young child throwing a tantrum- spirit and desire are not directed at reason
Plato believes that harmony of the soul is a virtue
Injustice comes from disharmony of the soul
Plato gave 3 important aspects of the soul incarnate:
Reason
Searches for truth
Rules the soul
Spirit
Aggressiveness
Being honourable
Emotion
Desire or mercenary
Seeking pleasure for yourself
Desire for the necessary: food
Desire for the unnecessary: xbox
Perverted desires
Mercenary, because you need money

6. Does the soul exist? The argument from Knowledge
Learning is a matter of remembering what the soul has previously known in the form world
Equals- can see things of equal size. We have never seen the form of equal but we understand the concept
When you come to understand things you recognise them to be true.
The argument from Opposites
The physical world consists of opposites
The opposite of living is death
For death to be something rather than nothing, the soul must exist
This supports the idea of reincarnation, it implies a cycle. Souls were: ‘ bewitched by it [the body], by its passion and pleasures, that it thinks nothing else is real save what is corporeal- what can be touched and seen, drunk and eaten, or used for sexual enjoyment.’
Example of tyrants being reincarnated into wolves, drunks into donkeys and philosophers will dwell with the Gods

7. Issues
Peter Geach rejects Plato. What does seeing the forms mean? As seeing is a process linked to the body and senses.
2) Is learning really a matter of remembering?
3) Does the argument from opposites demonstrate the existence of the soul? The assumption that there are pairs of opposites can be challenged.
4) Relies on the theory of forms. This is debatable.

8. Aristotle and the Soul
His concept of soul is not the same as the common understanding
Psyche- many meanings in ancient Greek.
The soul is the form and shape of the body.
the soul cannot be separated from the body
Seal and wax
Axe and what makes it an axe
Eye and capacity to see
The soul gives shape to the matter of the body
The soul is the principle of life or activity of the body

9. Faculties of the soul There are various faculties of the soul
Nutrition Plants
Perception Animals
Desire Humans
Locomotion
Intellect
Not all souls have the same faculties.
There is a hierarchy.
Had an effect in the middle ages- animals have a irrational soul
The soul is the formal, efficient and final cause of the body

10. Write a paragraph to summarise the Dualism put forth by Plato and Aristotle.

11. Does the soul survive after death?
The unity of body and soul suggests not.
In De Anima he doesn’t focus on immortality
But, he suggested intellectual through could be separated from the soul and be in heaven.
Kenny calls this an ‘inconstant’ in other words.. Well confusing

12. Materialism and Monism
Materialists generally argue against any concept of the after life.
But, they could believe in bodily resurrection
Monist refers to anyone who believes that there is only one substance- matter- so dualism is incorrect.
Identity is linked only to the body- all emotions come from the brain
identity theory- all mental activities are centred in the brain. Supported by science- drugs change emotion/character. At the end of life, mental activity ends.
But, Stephen T Davis (‘Philosophy and life after death: The Questions and the Opinions), can be criticised concerning how intentionality can be explained. (brain activity consists of nerves functioning in the brain. Neural activity has no intention)
Modern research strongly suggests that mental ctivities are in principle readable as they are cause by physical activity in the brain. If true this would go against dualism.

13. Dawkins
Take notes on the dawkins case study pg

14. Richard Dawkins
Dawkins, as a strong atheist, is also a materialist. DNA is all a person is, according to him, a soul cannot exist, it is a mythical concept invented by primitive people. “Life is just bytes and bytes of information” – River out of Eden.
However, he still believes humans are great, not because they are created by God, but because of the evolutionary process they are able to undertake. Dawkins believes that humans are the universe, as they are so great and they are what keeps going in the evolutionary time space.
Dawkins, therefore, does not believe in life after death. He thinks humans are just put on this Earth to be survival machines and reproduce, the ultimate reason for their existence, and then die. This is what life is and it’s purpose has been fulfilled.

15. Gilbert Ryle’s ‘Ghost in the machine’
Book= ‘the concept of the mind’. Published in 1949.
Challenged the dualism of descartes- that mind and boy are seperate
‘the dogma of the ghost in the machine’. I hope to prove that it is entirely false, and false not in detail but in principle. It is not meerly an assemblage of mistakes. It is one big mistake and a mistake of a special kind. It is namely, a catergory mistake. It represents the facts of mental life as if they belonged to on logical type or catergory…when they actually belong to another.’
“Ryle thought the philosophical of the use of the word soul was a “category mistake” or a mistake in the use of the language. The example which he used was a foreigner watching a cricket match “Where’s the team’s spirit” may have been interpreted as “the team’s spirit” being a physical entity. A soul was considered to have been a category mistake too, soul’s actual meaning was thought to refer to the way someone behaves.

16. John Hick and Replica Theory
Book= ‘Resurrection of the person.’
A way through which resurrection can be understood.
Rejects dualism while defending bodily resurrection
Humans are a ‘psycho-somatic unity’- a unity of body and mind/soul.
The soul is not like Ryle’s ghost in the machine.
‘the concept of mind and soul is thus not that of a ‘ghost’ in the ‘machine’ but of the more flexible and sophisticated ways in which human beings behave and have it in them to behave.’

17. So what does Hick think?
Paul spoke of resurrection involving spiritual bodies.
Hick argues that resurrection is a divine action in which an exact replica of ourselves is created in a different place.
‘ I wish to suggest that we can think of it as the divine creation in another space of an exact psycho- physical ‘replica’ of the deceased person.’
The replica is the same as us but not on earth
The resurrection could take place instantly or at death or after a time lapse determined by God.
The replica exists in a ‘different space’ observable by God but not by us.
The replica is not the same as a copy as each person can only exist in one space and at one time.
Hick rejects the idea of copies as part of being human is to be individual.

18. An example?
Hick uses the example of John Smith, who disappears in America and arrives in India. The replica is the same, with the same memory and emotion. His friends also conclude he is the same person.
However, Hick then says that John Smith died and was recreated in a different place at exactly the same time. His friends again conclude that it is the same person, as his characteristics are exactly the same.
There is a specific resurrection world Hick is referring to here, rather than him reappearing somewhere within our world which we can experience. The world is “not situated at any distance or any direction from the objects in our present world, although each object in either world is spatially related to every other object in the same world” – Philosophy of Religion.
Hick thought this, and therefore resurrection was logically possible, as God is omnipotent and so could make this recreation happen.

19. Issues with Hick Identification of the replica as the original person
Hick argued that if the replica has the same ‘conciousness, memory, emotion and violation’ as the original it is logical to identify the replica as the original.
But for some philosophers, the physical continuity is what’s important. If the body’s life ends, then the unity which is the person ends.
Hick insisted there was continuity. But if physical continuity is needed then problems arrive.
Multiple replicas and the nature of the resurrected body
Some philosophers have suggested that there could be multiple replicas.
If this is the case, the identiy of the individual ill be lost.
Hick rejects this: ‘Our concept of ‘the same person’ has not developed to cope with such a situation.’
Any discussion on LAD is limited by our lack of ability to know what happens, as we have no sense experience.
Common questions: what age will the replica be? Will the replica have diseases or injuries?
Hick suggests that replicas could be healed

20. Christianity and Resurrection
Christians believe that death is the end of physical life and the beginning of a new stage.
The NT talks of the after life as a paradise, a state of continued existence with God.
The resurrection is interpreted as a sign that death is not the end and that god doesn’t abandon people: ‘But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)

21. The resurrection is the most important and significant even in Christianity. Jesus not only dies for people but rises again.
Jesus is somehow changed and different
His followers don’t recognise him
Jesus is not described as a ghost or vision
He is physical but transformed
Physical resurrection makes Christianity distinctive
Geach suggests that resurrection is the only meaningful way to talk about life after death.
A person couldn’t be meaningfully identified with only a spiritual existence.
Souls must be reunified: ‘to such a body as would reconstitute a man identifiable with the man who died.’
Paul (1 Corinthians 15) states the Christian belief in resurrection but this has not always been clearly stated. The Catholic church clears it up: ‘We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day.’ (Catechism of the Catholic church)
Christianity does sometimes sound dualistic. At death the soul is separated and awaits the final resurrection.
At death, each person is judged by God- ‘The particular judgement’
Whether resurrection happens at the point of death is unclear.

22. Starter
Write a key terms list for the following: Life after death Resurrection Soul Reincarnation Dualism Monism Materialism The soul The body Samsara Karma Atman

23. The particular judgement
Within traditional Christian belief, everyone is judged when they die
Its called ‘The particular judgement’ because everyone is judged individually and personally
The good go to heaven, the bad to hell
But judgement is a bad term: the parable of the last judgement (matt 25:31-46) tells that people shape their relationships with God through their actions, God accepts people as they are.
Jesus said: ‘And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Matt 25:40
God and Jesus set out principles for people to live by, deliberately rejecting these principles in rejecting God.
Some claim that God will forgive them what ever they do, but justice demands that people must make up for their wrong doing.
God forgives those who truly repent: they must acknowledge their wrongdoing (contrition), admit their wrong doing (confession and make up for their wrong doing (an act of satisfaction)

24. Heaven
For Christians heaven is a state of being in which you can see God face to face, experience God in a new way
Catholics call this the ‘Beatific Vision’
Found in the writings of Paul and the book of Revelation. ‘For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but the we will see face to face.’ (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Heaven is described as a state of fulfilment; where all human longings and wishes are to be in a right relationship with God: ‘Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme definitive happiness’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
It is seen as the ultimate goal of human existence, to which all humans are being called.
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe that Heaven is achieved through their own actions. People have to desire to do good and actually do it.

25. Hell The fate for those who do wrong in life Characterised by:
1. A state of separation from God
2. A place of punishment
There is imagery of fire, pain, suffering and torture- Dante’s poetry and John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’
‘A dungeon horrible on all sides round,
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames,
No light, but rather darkness visable,
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades’

26. Hell
A place of suffering as wrong doers are denied the beatific vision with God and they know they have lost it.
A place of punishment because God’s justice demands that wrongdoers are punished.
Hell is an aspect of God’s justice- people bring punishment on themselves through wrong actions.

27. Helpful?
The images of heaven and hell may encourage right action and show the consequences of bad actions.
However, some people believe these are unhelpful as they do not portray a loving God.
The eternal nature of the punishment
Punishment is only retributive
Where is hell? Here? The moon? Underground?

28. Aquinas
For medieval Christians hell was about a separation from God and a state of punishment ‘for mortal sin which is contrary to charity a person is expelled for ever from the fellowship of the saints and condemned to everlasting punishment’ (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae) ‘First, because thereby the Divine justice is safeguarded which is acceptable to God for its own sake…. Secondly, they are useful, because the elect rejoice therein, when they see God’s justice in them, and realise that they have escaped them.’ (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae)

29. Sartre
An atheist philosopher, he suggested hell was a separation from other people. Poor relationships with others are experiences of hell. ‘ So that’s what hell is; I’d never have believed it…. Do you remember brimstone, the stake, the gridiron?... What a joke! No need for the gridiron… Hell is other people’

30. The Problem of Evil
Many Xtian theodicies (Irenaeus &Augustine) place emphasis on freewill as an explanation of the existence of evil.
Freewill makes people accountable for their actions
But why does God let it seem that wrongdoers thrive and good people suffer?
For some, the justification comes from the particular judgement
For Catholics and Orthodox Xtians no one is predestined to go to hell; God loves everyone and wishes to forgive everyone.
‘ Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us- and we ought to lie down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? (1 John 3:13-17)

31. But, if people choose to lead a life of wrong doing, then they choose to be separate from God. People choose hell as their fate:
‘God does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.’ (Ecumenical Council of Trent, 1547)
‘God predestines no one to go to hell; for this [to happen], a wilful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end.’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
‘Persistence in it until the end’ is important as it indicates God’s forgiveness. If people turn from sin, repent and believe in God, they can rebuild their relationship with God. To end up in hell, you have to never repent for your actions.

32. If God does not judge people:
The value of freewill would be undermined
You could do what ever you want with no repercussions
BUT, you can be moral without being Xtian.
Swinburne, argues that free will demand the possibility of people being able to choose to develop an utterly corrupt and bad character. A failure to let a person choose to be bad would mean God had not given us true free will:
‘It is good that God should allow people the choice of forming their characters in such a way as to not open to future change. For if God, refused to allow someone to develop an irreformably bad character, that would be refusing to recognise an ultimate moral choice by an independent moral agent. It would be like a jilted lover pestering the beloved on and on, not recognising her right to say a final no. (Providence and the Problem of Evil)
If God has the power to judge and the knowledge of what people do, his goodness and justice can be challenged if he doesn’t judge and punish people appropriately.
Divine justice is only meaningful if it is carried out.
If people reject God, justice demands that God rejects them.
But, some theologians, argue that God’s mercy demands that all people are forgiven and purified by God.
Swinburne noted that this universal salvation is not traditional and was almost unheard of before modern times.
Many theodicies rely on the concept of God judging people as the basis of moral responsibility. Heaven and hell being meaningful is important.

33. Predestination and Divine Election
Within Christian tradition there is much emphasis on freewill, moral responsibility and a rejection of predestination.
But, some Christians believe in Divine Election.
The 16th Century Protestant reformer John Calvin, is associated with The Doctrine of Divine Election.
He meant that some people are destined for relationship with God and some not.
Whether one is saved or not is not a matter of human choice.
Whether someone is among God’s elect, is a matter for an omnipotent and omniscient God and thus a mystery beyond human comprehension. (Institutes of the Christian Religion)
Calvin is often associated with predestination (people fate is predetermined) .
Some are destined for eternal life and some not.
Peoples actions in life are signs of if they are among the elect or not
For some offshoots of Calvinism (e.g. followers of Theodore de Beze) predestination became important as it separated Catholics and Lutherans from some other protestants.
Revelation refers to 144,000 servants of God (Rev 7:12) who are saved.
Ultimately, belief in divine election is a belief that God’s justice triumphs; the god are saved and the bad go to hell.

34. Is it true that you will go to hell if you do not believe in God?
Debated throughout history
Many Christians say that Jesus died to save people who believe in him
Atheism is a denial of God, atheists would be judged and condemned
In medieval Europe and ancient Greece, it was punishable by death
Supported in xtian culture by passages in the bible which say that knowing rejection of the holy spirit led to hell
Not necessarily portrayed in xtian teaching
E.g. Roman Catholic Church states that all people should follow their consciences, as well as seek guidance to inform their consciences.
Compulsion or threats cannot be used to make people believe
‘extra ecclesia nulla salus’ (‘Outside the Church there is no salvation) is rejected by most denominations.
Developed among catholic missionaries who were scandalised by how conquerors of the new world treated native Americans.
Ultimately God judges people not Xtians
People can only be expected to believe if the witness they have seen is credible.
In RC theology it is possible to be a good person and go to heaven (through conscience and Nat law) if you have never had a credible opportunity to become Xtian:
‘To the extent that they [Christians] are careless about their [non Christians] instruction in faith, or present its teachings falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the true nature of God and of religion. (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965))

35. Hinduism and Rebirth
Rebirth (Reincarnation) is held by many religions which contrasts with Xtian belief in Resurrection.
The soul of the body is eternal
It is reborn into new bodies generation after generation
Reincarnation is dualistic
The status of the new body depends on the actions of the united body and soul in the previous life
If they were morally good they will have a better rebirth
If they were morally bad they will have a lower birth (worm/ insect)
The physical world is a dream like state, Brahman, who is divine and transcendent is reality.
Physical= temporary
All living things have an Atman (soul)
Animates the body.
Essence of the person
Placement reflects karma
Karma is the cycle of life, death and rebirth
The previous actions of the atman place it
The ultimate aim of the soul is to reunited with Brahman and escape Samsara

36. Evidence? Memories of previous lives déjà vu
BUT, this can be explained away
Kids just heard it
Hoax
What is the link between the previous life and the person who inherited the Atman?
Memory or body is not the link
So what is the soul?
Swinburne (‘The Future of the Soul’) rejects reincarnation as there is no continuity between the brain of the new baby and the person who died, no way to say the soul is distinctly the soul of that person.
Davis (‘Philosophy and Life after Death: The Questions and the Options’) pointed out that Karma is used to explain POE, people suffer due to the sins of their past lives. But, what is the connection between the person suffering and the past life? If the link is only the Atman, how is this just?
Geach (‘What must be true of me if I survive my death?’) rejects as a link with the person who has died cannot be established. How is a baby you if it lacks your body, memories, experiences, feelings and so on?

37. Arguments against Three key ideas:
Belief in an after life is a product of human wishful thinking
There is no evidence to suggest people survive after death
It makes no sense to talk of a person surviving death, as a person is a physical entity.
Many people fear death as it is unknown. This fear leads to belief in LAD
Flew (can a man witness his own funeral?) states that people are mortal. That minds are united to a physical body and the body is mortal. Mental processes do not survive past death.
Flew says ‘people are what you meet’ To talk of thatcher is to talk of her physical self. Belief in the after life is ‘Self- contradictory’ – it makes no sense
Russell: ‘All that constitutes a person is a series of experiences connected by memory and by certain similarities of the sort we call habit.’ A person is the experiences that are connected together in the memory of the individual. Memories and therefore the person are lost at death, due to the brain decaying.
Fear of death is ‘instinctive’. Belief in LAD is a result.
Russell: Of men in the concrete, most of us think the vast majority very bad. Civilised states spend more that half their revenue on killing each others citizens. Consider the long history of activities inspired by moral fervour: persecution of heretics, witch-hunts, pogroms leading up to wholesale extermination by poisonous gas. (belief in life after death comes from emotion not reason)
Leads him to question 2 things:
Whether ethical beliefs that leads to these things come from God
Whether people really want those who conduct these events to live forever.
He suggests the world is better understood without God and an after life, because if there is evidence in the world of ‘deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend’

38. Review questions
Which are more coherent: arguments in favour of resurrection or rebirth?
What is the appeal of materialism?
Is replica theory more persuasive than belief in the soul?
Which argument against life after death is the strongest in your opinion? Justify your answer.
Outline Russell’s reasons for rejecting belief in life after death. Is his argument persuasive?
Try to explain the following terms without your books or notes:
Replica theory
Disembodied existence
Resurrection
Reincarnation
Materialism
Divine election