OCR ↗︎
Philosophy ↗︎
Question preparation ↓

AO1: Plato’s dualism

Plato is a dualist, meaning the soul and body are distinct.
He argues the physical world, including the body, is a flawed representation of the real world of Forms.
We are not essentially bodies, but souls capable of understanding these Forms through reason.
However, Plato’s dualism is not between two types of substance, but between degrees of reality.
The soul and Forms have a higher level of reality than the body and the physical world.
Plato illustrates the soul with the charioteer analogy.
The charioteer represents reason, guiding two horses.
One horse is noble (spirit), linked to courage and honour.
The other is unruly (appetite), linked to desire and bodily urges.
When reason controls both, the soul is ordered and moves towards truth and the divine.
If appetite dominates, the soul becomes disordered and trapped in ignorance.
This supports Plato’s view that virtue is the harmony of the soul’s parts.

AO2: Plato’s argument from recollection

Plato argues for an immaterial soul and realm of forms through recollection.
We have ideas of perfect things, like equal sticks, perfect circles or justice.
Yet we never encounter such perfection in experience.
So, these ideas must come from a realm of perfect forms.
Since the body is imperfect, it cannot access this realm.
By the likeness principle, the part of us that knows forms must also be immaterial.
So, we must have an immaterial soul that knew the forms before birth.
Learning is then recollection, where experience triggers memory of these forms.

Counter

Hume argues that some concepts, like justice or beauty, are subjective.
Even with geometry, he claims we can form ideas of perfection ourselves.
We do this through abstract negation, imagining imperfect things as “not imperfect”.
This allows us to form the idea of a perfect circle without experience of one.
So, perfect concepts do not require a realm of forms or an immaterial soul.

Evaluation

Plato’s argument fails in two ways.
First, Hume shows perfect concepts could arise from reasoning alone, without being innate.
Second, even if such concepts were innate, this does not prove a soul or realm of forms.
There are alternative explanations.
For example, evolution may have equipped us with geometric awareness for survival.
So Plato wrongly assumes his explanation is the only one.
The argument does not establish the existence of a soul or forms.

AO1: Aristotle’s materialist view of the soul

Aristotle rejects Plato’s idea that form exists in a separate realm.
Instead, form is part of objects themselves, their essence or “formal cause”.
This view is called hylomorphism.
For living things, the soul is the formal cause that gives them their defining characteristics.
Plants have a vegetative soul enabling nutrition and growth.
Animals have this plus movement.
Humans have all of these and also rational thought.
So, the human soul is what gives us our essential nature as rational beings.
Aristotle illustrates this with the analogy of a stamp and wax.
The wax is like the body, and the imprint is like the soul.
The imprint is not a separate thing, but gives the wax its form.
In the same way, the soul is not a distinct substance.
It cannot exist apart from the body, but gives the body its life and capacities.

AO2: Critique of formal causation by modern materialism

Modern science rejects formal causation.
A classic example is explaining snow’s whiteness by its form.
We now explain it through material structure and interaction with light.
After Bacon, science excluded concepts without explanatory necessity.
Aristotle saw thought as the activity of the soul, the body’s form.
Modern science instead explains mind through brain processes.
So, what was once attributed to form can be explained materially.

Counter

Contemporary hylomorphists argue this move is premature.
Material explanations have not yet explained consciousness or rational thought.
So, we cannot claim formal causation has been eliminated.
The absence of explanation leaves space for form as a necessary principle.

Evaluation

However, gaps in explanation do not justify positing a new metaphysical cause.
Science has often replaced earlier explanatory categories, like vital forces, with material accounts.
The case of snow’s whiteness shows this pattern.
So, the absence of explanation is not evidence for formal causation.
Consciousness may require new concepts, but it may not.
Until there is clear evidence for formal causation, it remains unnecessary.
Material and efficient causes have strong empirical support.
So, we are justified in continuing to investigate consciousness in material terms.

AO1: Descartes’ substance dualism

Descartes thought the mind and soul are the same thing.
He is a substance dualist, meaning mind and body are distinct types of being.
Physical substance is defined by extension, occupying space, while mental substance is defined by thinking.
Descartes is a rationalist who argues that a priori intuition can give certain knowledge.
From this, further knowledge can be derived through deduction.
The first certainty is our own existence.
We cannot doubt that we exist, because doubting itself requires a thinker.
So, Descartes concludes “cogito ergo sum” – I think therefore I am.
The “I” here refers to a thinking mind.
By contrast, the body can be doubted.
We might be dreaming or deceived by an evil demon about having a body.
This suggests a distinction between mind and body.
Thinking is inseparable from what we are, but the body is not.
Descartes then develops this into two arguments for the non-identity of mind and body: the indivisibility argument and the conceivability argument.

AO2: Descartes’ Indivisibility argument

Descartes argues all extended things are divisible, since they can be divided across the space they occupy.
The mind is indivisible, as it has no parts and thinking is essential to it.
P1. Physical substance is divisible (since it is extended).
P2. The mind is indivisible (since it is non-extended).
P3. Identical things must share the same properties (Leibniz’ law).
C1. So, the mind cannot be identical to any physical substance like the body.
If mind and body were identical, they would be both divisible and indivisible, which is impossible.

Counter

Scholastics argued the mind can be divided into feelings, perceptions and memories.
Descartes replies that the mind is a single consciousness.
These are not parts but modes of one unified subject.
So, the mind itself remains indivisible.

Evaluation

A stronger challenge comes from split-brain cases.
The brain’s hemispheres can be separated, leading to divided behaviour.
Patients may act in conflicting ways, such as one hand helping while the other resists.
This suggests a division within consciousness itself.
So, the mind may not be truly indivisible.
If the mind can be divided, Descartes’ key premise is false.
This undermines his argument that the mind is non-physical.

AO2: Descartes’ conceivability argument

Descartes’ rationalism claims we can gain knowledge through clear and distinct ideas.
P1. I have a clear and distinct idea of myself as a thinking, non-extended thing.
P2. I have a clear and distinct idea of my body as a non-thinking, extended thing.
C1. So, we can conceive of mind and body as separate.
P3. What is conceivably separate is possibly separate.
P4. What is possibly separate is actually non-identical.
C2. Therefore, mind and body are not identical.
Identical things cannot be conceived as separate.
But we can imagine a disembodied mind, such as a ghost or out-of-body experience.

Counter

However, the masked man fallacy shows conceivability does not entail possibility.
Someone may imagine the masked robber is not their father, yet it could be.
So they have imagined an impossibility.
This shows conceivability can reflect ignorance.
Descartes may similarly be imagining an impossibility when he conceives of a disembodied mind.

Evaluation

Descartes might argue such errors arise from ignorance, whereas we know our mind with certainty.
However, this overstates our self-knowledge.
We may know that we exist, but not what we are.
Cognitive psychology shows much mental processing is unconscious.
The Socratic ideal of self-knowledge suggests it is not immediate.
So we lack the transparency Descartes assumes.
This means conceivability may reflect limits of introspection rather than genuine possibility.
The masked man fallacy therefore still applies.
So, the argument fails to show mind and body are distinct.

AO1: Gilbert Ryle’s ‘category error’ critique of dualism

Ryle argues that dualism commits a ‘category error’, confusing the type of thing something is.
He illustrates this with someone shown different university buildings, who then asks to be shown the university itself.
They wrongly treat “the university” as another object in the same category as the buildings.
Ryle claims Descartes makes the same mistake with the mind.
Descartes argues the mind is not physical, so must be a non-physical thing.
But Ryle says this wrongly assumes the mind is a “thing” at all.
Treating the mind as a separate entity is like saying there is a “ghost in the machine” of the body.
Ryle instead adopts soft behaviourism.
He argues that mental language refers to behavioural dispositions.
For example, saying someone is “angry” means they are disposed to behave in certain ways.
It does not refer to a separate inner object called anger.
He illustrates this with brittleness.
Glass is brittle, but brittleness is not a separate thing.
It is a disposition to shatter under certain conditions.
Likewise, mental states are not things but ways of behaving.
Ryle also rejects the idea that the mind is simply the brain.
Treating the mind as a physical object also commits a category error.
He remains a materialist, since only physical things exist, but denies that the mind is a thing at all.

AO2: The category mistake

A common sense response to Ryle is to reject that the mind is not a thing.
It seems like our minds are real things, which supports inferring others have them too.
Mill develops this into an argument from analogy.
We know our own mind through introspection, and infer others have similar states from their behaviour.
So, mental language refers to inner states, not a category mistake.
The question then becomes whether those states are physical or non-physical.

Counter

Ryle denies that mental concepts come from private introspection.
He argues they are learned through public language use.
Children learn terms like “pain” by seeing how they apply to behaviour.
So, mental language does not refer to inner objects.
Treating it as such creates the “ghost in the machine”.

Evaluation

However, both views are incomplete.
Mill assumes introspection is neutral, but it depends on learned concepts.
What counts as “pain” or “belief” is shaped by language.
However, Ryle’s error is deeper.
Even if mental language is learned publicly, this does not show it fails to refer.
He wrongly moves from meaning to ontology.
A better view is that inner experience and language develop together.
Our concepts are socially shaped but track real differences in experience.
So, referring to inner states is not a category mistake.

AO1: Materialism

Monism is the view that only one type of entity exists.
There is only one kind of being or reality.
This divides into two main forms.
Idealists claim reality is mental.
Materialists claim reality is physical.
Ancient thinkers like Aristotle were materialists in a broad sense, but still allowed for the soul as the form of the body.
However, modern materialism tends to reject the soul altogether.
It claims the mind is simply the brain, so there is no separate soul.
Dawkins represents this modern view.
He argues there is no scientific evidence for the soul.
Science shows humans are evolved physical beings, made of matter such as flesh, bones and DNA.
Our mental abilities, like reason and consciousness, can be explained by brain development through natural selection.
As Bertrand Russell put it, when we die, nothing of the self survives.
Dawkins concludes that talk of the soul is only meaningful in a metaphorical sense.
He distinguishes between a literal soul, which he rejects, and a metaphorical use of the term.
For example, calling someone “soulless” just describes their character, not the absence of a real soul.
So, the mind is nothing more than the brain, and death is the end of personal existence.

AO2: Reductive materialism

Reductive materialism claims the mind is just the brain.
Drugs that affect the brain also affect consciousness.
Brain damage affects specific mental abilities depending on location.
Brain development and ageing change the mind.
Brain imaging shows consistent correlations between brain activity and mental states.
Smart uses Occam’s razor to argue the simplest explanation is identity.
Mental states are identical to brain states.
For example, pain is just C-fibre stimulation.

Counter

Chalmers argues science has only solved the “easy problem” of consciousness.
This explains functions like memory and perception.
The “hard problem” is explaining why physical processes produce subjective experience.
Neuroscience has made little progress here.
So, it may be premature to conclude the mind is reducible to the brain.

Evaluation

However, this does not refute materialism.
If the mind is the brain, we should expect it to be difficult to understand.
So, the hard problem’s difficulty is not evidence against reduction.
It may simply reflect current limits of knowledge.
It is more reasonable to extend physical explanations than introduce non-physical entities.
Science has a strong track record of explaining previously mysterious phenomena.
So, while dualism remains possible, the balance of evidence still favours materialism.

Question preparation

Revision paragraphs:

AO1: Plato’s dualism
AO2: Plato’s argument from recollection
AO1: Aristotle’s materialist view of the soul
AO2: Critique of formal causation by modern materialism
AO1: Descartes’ substance dualism
AO2: Descartes’ Indivisibility argument
AO2: Descartes’ conceivability argument
AO1: Gilbert Ryle’s ‘category error’ critique of dualism
AO2: The category mistake
AO1: Materialism
AO2: Reductive materialism

Question types:

Questions can focus on or critically comparing, any of the following:

Plato (the soul as the essential and immaterial part of a human, temporarily united with the body
Aristotle (the soul as the form of the body; the way the body behaves and lives; something which cannot be separated from the body)
Descartes (mind and body are distinct material and spiritual substances)
Metaphorical view of the soul (Dawkins)
Category error/mistake (Ryle)

For such focused questions:

AO1 on the thing in the question.
AO2 on the thing in the question (each has at least one).
Then, you can bring in other views – but bare minimum AO1 for them, and their relevance to the view focused on by the question must be introduced and sustained throughout the paragraph.

For critical comparison questions:

You could do one paragraph on each and then a third paragraph on another person who would either say yes or no to both, or back up one over the other.
Fine to conclude both views fail equally, or that one is slightly more convincing but both still fail.

Evaluate Plato’s view of the soul [40]

AO1: Plato’s dualism
AO2: Plato’s argument from recollection
And then could do any two of the following:
- AO2: Reductive materialism
  - Dawkins & Smart would say Plato is wrong, Chalmers attempts a defense of property dualism, but ultimately fails.
- AO2: Descartes’ Indivisibility argument
  - Would say Plato’s dualist metaphysics needs developing into a more modern ‘substance’ variety, though modern science shows they both ultimately fail.
- AO2: Critique of formal causation by modern materialism
  - Aristotle would say Plato was wrong, though modern science would say they both ultimately fail.

“The should is best understood metaphorically” – Discuss [40]

AO1: Materialism
- (must include the Dawkins part).
AO2: Reductive materialism
And then could do anything else really:
Plato, Aristotle and Descartes all believe in various types of a literal soul, and are all countered by modern science – which fits well to defend and link back to Dawkins’ view.
Even Ryle could work, since he would not quite agree with either side of the ‘metaphorical vs literal’ question, but would say language about the mind refers to behavioural dispositions – not a literal non-physical soul entity, nor a material form, nor a material entity.

‘Discussion of the mind-body distinction is a category error’ – Discuss [40]

AO1: Gilbert Ryle’s ‘category error’ critique of dualism
AO2: The category mistake
AO2: Reductive materialism
- Ryle aims to attack reductive materialism like that of Dawkins & Smart as well as dualism. It’s a category error to refer to the mind as a thing, which includes a non-physical thing, but also a physical thing like the brain.
- Dawkins’ approach to the mind-body distinction is better than Ryle’s in making the case for materialism & criticising dualism – because Dawkins relies more on science and doesn’t lead to counter-intuitive claims that the mind isn’t a thing.
AO2: Descartes’ Indivisibility argument
- Intro sentence: Descartes argued his theory was not based on a category error, but on sound rationalist argumentation.
- Outro sentence: Modern science (split brain patients) shows that Descartes is wrong, adding further weight to the conclusion that it is science that undermines Descartes, not Ryle’s philosophical linguistic analysis about category errors.

Questions about consciousness or the mind

Definition of ‘mind’: the whole inner psychological self, including its conscious and unconscious aspects.
Definition of ‘consciousness’: our sense of awareness; a thing is conscious if there is ‘something it is like’ to be that thing (Nagel’s phrasing).

Descartes thinks the soul and the conscious mind are the same thing.
For Plato, the mind is the soul, and consciousness is one part of it (the charioteer).
For Aristotle, the conscious mind arises from the activity of the soul’s integrated powers, especially perception, imagination and intellect. Soul is much broader than mind, because soul covers many aspects of the organism (nutrition, motion, as well as reason/intellect).

Weirdly worded questions:

Could consciousness/mind/soul could be fully explained by physical interactions [40]

Physical interactions refers to brain processes – e.g. electrical impulses in the brain.
This question is basically asking whether the mind is just the brain.
Reductive materialism (Smart & Dawkins): yes.
Dualists (Plato & Descartes): no.
Aristotle: no – because the soul gives us reason – and it isn’t simply reducible to the material/efficient causes in the brain as it’s the formal cause of the body.

“The soul is the way the body behaves and lives” – Discuss [40]

This Q is about aristotle so treat it as just “evaluate Aristotle on the soul”, though with a bit of focus on whether the soul is as he says or as others describe – or whether it exists at all!
AO1: Aristotle’s materialist view of the soul
AO2: Critique of formal causation by modern materialism
Aside from this, you could bring in any of the others, as they all disagree with Aristotle:
AO2: Plato’s argument from recollection
- Plato rejects Aristotle’s location of form as immanently realised in beings, instead arguing recollection proves our soul is separable from the body and comes from a transcendent realm of forms.
AO2: Descartes’ Indivisibility argument
AO2: Descartes’ conceivability argument
- Descartes’ argument are for a separate soul which would reject Aristotle’s account of it
AO2: Reductive materialism
- the materialist critique of the existence of any kind of soul.
Ryle could work but would be complicated!

Analyse the metaphysics of consciousness. [40]

Metaphysics is the philosophical field/study of the nature of existence/reality).
This question is just asking you to debate the nature of consciousness – e.g. is consciousness physical (materialism) or non-physical (dualism)

Assess the philosophical language of soul, mind and body in Plato and Aristotle’s work. [40]

This question is just asking you to critically compare Plato & Aristotle on the soul.
Using Ryle against Plato would be great because he focuses on critiquing the philosophical language of dualism (and technically materialism too).

Assess materialist critiques of dualism [40]
Assess dualist arguments against materialism [40]

AO1: Materialism
AO2: Plato’s argument from recollection (dualist argument) and its counter from Hume (materialist critique).
AO2: Descartes’ Indivisibility argument (dualist argument – has a bit more of a materialist critique than the conceivability argument, though either could work really).
AO2: Reductive materialism (Smart’s materialist critique) and Chalmers’ as a counter (dualist argument)

Is the soul a spiritual substance? [40]

Descartes: yes – Descartes is the substance dualist.
Plato: no – Plato is a dualist – but not a substance dualist – Plato doesn’t say the mind and body are separate substances, but different degrees of reality.
Dawkins – no (it doesn’t exist)
Aristotle – no (it’s the form of the body)
Ryle – no (it’s a category error to think of the soul/mind as a thing of any type, including a spiritual substance).