Soul-body problem: survey - 1 Soul & body: a survey of the basic positions zBackground on the soul-body problem zMain historical & logical positions on the soul- body problem y1. Substance dualism xPlato ( B.C.), Augustine ( ), Descartes ( ) - the soul is a different kind of reality than the body; it is a spiritual substance and is the seat of the self.

Soul-body problem: survey - 2 Soul & body: background xPlato - the soul properly belongs to the otherworldly realm of Ideas or Forms xComments & problems: Provides a clean solution to scientific criticisms of the notion of soul by putting soul out of the bounds of science. Independence position.

Soul-body problem: survey - 3 Soul & body: background If so dissimilar, how can they interact? If humans have evolved from matter, we would expect mind or soul to be similar to matter.

Soul-body problem: survey - 4 Soul & body: background xIs not substance dualism required for the Jewish & Christian notions of afterlife? Many contemporary biblical scholars argue that dualism is not present in the Hebrew and Christian bibles

Soul-body problem: survey - 5 Soul & body: background Hebrew nephesh, often translated as “soul,” does not mean an immortal soul but the life principle or the self as the subject of appetites & emotions & willing

Soul-body problem: survey - 6 Soul & body: background y2. Matter-form dualism - the soul is not complete by itself; it is complete only with the body; but it is capable of existing without the body xAristotle ( ), Aquinas ( ) xProblems: Has many of the same difficulties of substance dualism, but perhaps mitigated a bit.

Soul-body problem: survey - 7 Soul & body: background The metaphysical baggage which goes with this theory xStrength It has a much more positive appraisal of the body than Platonic dualism

Soul-body problem: survey - 8 Soul & body: background y3. Physicalism, or “materialism,” or “reductive materialism” xMental events are identical with brain processes. Francis Crick in The Astonishing Hypothesis (1994)

Soul-body problem: survey - 9 Soul & body: background å“The Astonishing hypothesis is that ‘you,’ your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it: ‘You’re nothing but a pack of neurons.’” (The Astonishing Hypothesis 3)

Soul-body problem: survey - 10 Soul & body: background xSome criticisms: Crick sets up the problem as if there are only two alternatives: strong substance dualism or reductive materialism. Is this fallacious? At best a research programme It cannot account for the privileged position of the subject

Soul-body problem: survey - 11 Soul & body: background y4. Multi-level theories xIan Barbour & Nancey Murphy - Reality is organized into a variety of levels, each with its characteristic types of activity. The mind-brain problem is a particular case of the more general problem of the relation between levels.

Soul-body problem: survey - 12 Soul & body: background xAdvantages: Is congenial with an evolutionary viewpoint According to Barbour, it is compatible with the biblical view of humans xNancey Murphy’s position is a version of the multi-level theory

Soul-body problem: survey - 13 Soul & body: background yWhy science seems to make any version of strong dualism problematic x1. The continuity between humans and other animals Our closest cousins in the animal world are chimpanzees--c.99% of the DNA of humans and chimpanzees is the same

Soul-body problem: survey - 14 Soul & body: background Hominids & chimpanzees evolved from a common ancestor c. 5 to 7 million years ago (Ayala 33) One of the lines of these early hominids evolved is Australopithicus.

Soul-body problem: survey - 15 Soul & body: background xThe genus Homo evolved from Australopithicus c. 2.5 million years ago. x Of the many species in the genus Homo, Homo sapiens sapiens emerged c. 120,000 years ago.

Soul-body problem: survey - 16 Soul & body: background x2. Modern psychology & neurology Brain localization research Murphy: “Nearly all of the human capacities or faculties once attributed to the soul [language, emotion, decision-making] are now seen to be functions of the brain” (1).

Soul-body problem: survey - 17 Soul & body: background Specific mental processes have been shown to be tightly linked to particular regions or systems of the brain Examples åThe hippocampus -- remembering names or events åWriting prose and reading it are linked to different parts of the brain.

Soul-body problem: survey - 18 Soul & body: background åRecognizing faces åDamage to the right temporal lobe results in obsessional behavior