Soul, Mind and Body

Metaphysics of consciousness, including:

• Substance dualism
• Materialism

Substance dualism

- Plato was a substance dualist. 

- He believed that the soul and body were two distinct substances.

- He also did not give any evidence of this. He assumes instead of providing evidence.

- Plato did not say how the body and soul are interlinked in any way, this makes his argument less likely to be possible/believable.

- Rene Descartes was also a substance dualist, however was more extreme than Plato.

- Descartes was unsuprised that the Aristotlian view was discarded/ignored, this was because of his extreme methods.

- Descartes notes how sense experience may be mistaken, and spectacles about whether his senses might be misled by some malicious demon.

- This could mean that the material world and even his body might be an illusion.

- He conlcudes that there is only one certain piece of knowledge, at least, the cogito.

- This is usually rendered as, 'i think, therefore i am.'

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