Philosophy: St. Augustine on Body, Soul, and God

St. Augustine

• Augustine was deeply influenced by Plato's philosophy.
• He applied Platonic ideas to Christian theology.
• Augustine is considered the last of the great ancient philosophers in the Platonic tradition.

Dichotomy of Body and Soul

• Early view: Body as a "snare" or "cage" for the soul.
• Evolving perspective: Body as the "spouse" of the soul, united by "natural appetite."
• Final conclusion: Both body and soul are essential for a complete human being.

Two Realms of Human Nature

• God and Sinfulness are part of human nature.
• Realm 1: God is the source of all reality and truth.
• Mystical experience enables humans to know eternal truths.
• God is the one eternal truth
• Understanding God is key to understanding the world.
• Realm 2: Sinfulness of man.
• Sin originates from free will
• Moral goodness is achievable only through God's grace.

Finding True Happiness

• True happiness is found in God, who is love.
• Humans are created to love
• Misdirected love leads to unhappiness.
• Loving God above all else brings fulfillment.

Rene Descartes

• "I THINK, THEREFORE I EXIST."

Descartes: The Thinking Self

• True knowledge comes from doubting everything, even existence.
• Doubting reveals existence as a thinking being.
• The self is a dynamic entity engaged in mental operations like thinking, reasoning, and perceiving.
• Self-identity depends on awareness of mental operations.

Descartes: Dualism of Mind and Body

• The mind (soul) is non-material, immortal, and independent of the physical body
• The body is material, mortal, and governed by physical laws.
• Mind and body can exist independently.
• The mind has free will.

John Locke: The Blank Slate

• Locke posits that the self is consciousness.
• A person is a thinking, intelligent being who can reason and reflect.
• Personal identity persists over time and place.
• Consciousness is essential for thought.
• The self is only aware of the conscious, not the unconscious.
• Consciousness allows belief in continued identity.

Locke: The Role of Memory

• Locke disagreed with the idea of a single soul or substance.
• Personal identity is not tied to a specific body.
• Memory of experiences connects identity across time and places.

David Hume

• Understanding The Self in the Context of Empiricism

Impressions and Ideas

• Impressions defined as basic sensations of experience (pain, pleasure, heat, cold, etc.).
• Ideas are defined as copies of impressions that include thoughts and images.
• Impressions are the primary data of the mind, and ideas are derivative.

The Non-Existence of the Self

• It is argued the self does not exist as a unified and permanent entity.
• All experiences are perceptions, including the perception of self.
• Some perceptions resemble the same self-identity over time.

Limitations of Perception

• Instances exists when perception is limited, for example, during sleep or death.
• The absence of perception suggests a non-existent self.
• Hume applied his empiricist approach to his honest description and analysis of his experiences.

The Fictional Self

• The experienced self is a kind of fiction.
• Imaginary creature unifies mental events and introduces order into lives.
• It is emphasized that this "self" has no real existence.

Sigmund Freud

• Father of Psychoanalysis

Freud

• Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, founded psychoanalysis.
• Sigmund Freud is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
• Freud's theories on the unconscious mind, personality, and human sexuality have influenced psychology, literature, and popular culture.

The Dualistic View of Self

• Freud's dualistic view says the mind is composed of the conscious and unconscious self.
• The conscious self is rational, practical, and appropriate. Ruled by the reality principle.
• The unconscious self is aggressive, destructive, unrealistic, and instinctual. Ruled by the pleasure principle.

The Structure of The Mind

• Freud's mind model is shown as an iceberg where the conscious mind is the tip and unconscious is submerged.
• The conscious mind is responsible for thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.

The Three Levels of The Mind

• Freud thought of three mental levels: id, ego, and superego.
• The id is impulsive and seeks immediate gratification. Ruled by the pleasure principle
• The ego is rational: mediating between the id and superego
• The superego is the moral part of the mind. It establishes senses of right and wrong.

The Instincts

• Freud thought human behavior from two instincts: eros (life) and thanatos (death).
• The eros is responsible for survival and reproduction.
• The thanatos is responsible for aggression and destruction.

Gilbert Ryle: The Self as a Pattern of Behavior

• Ryle was a British analytical philosopher.
• He was a key figure in Linguistic Analysis.
• He solved philosophical issues by analyzing language.
• Ryle challenged traditional views of the mind and self.

The Self as a Pattern of Behavior

• Ryle defined the observable action self.
• Ryle believed the self as a collection of behaviours and tendencies.
• "The self is the way people behave."
• A kind person is an example of someone who consistently acts kindly.

Debunking the "Ghost in the Machine"

• Ryle disagreed with the idea of a separate mind/body (dualism).
• He termed this a "category mistake," for example, mistaking a university for the buildings rather than for its departments and functions..

The Illusion of a Separate Mind

• Ryle disagreed with of a "ghostly" controller.
• Mental processes and physical actions are not separate.
• Thoughts, emotions, and intentions are manifested through behaviors.

Understanding the Self Through Actions

• Observing behaviour understands a person.
• Actions and context are important.
• Change in behaviour can cause changes in the self.

Immanuel Kant

• The Self and Its Duty

The Greatest Philosopher of The Modern Period

• Kant is widely considered the greatest philosopher of the modern era.
• Kant revolutionized the understanding of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
• His ideas influence how we see contemporary thought.

The Self as The Synthesizer of Experience

• The self makes the external world comprehensible.
• The self synthesizes discrete sense data into a meaningful whole.
• Sensory experiences would be chaotic without a synthesizing factor.

The Self as The Product of Reason

• The self is the product of reason, a regulative principle.
• Reason regulates experience by unifying it.
• Kant argued that unalike Hume’s self, Kant’s self is not the object, but it makes consciousness understandable and unique.

Transcendental Apperception

• We do not experience the self directly, it acts as organizer of the mind
• All objects of knowledge are phenomenal, including the self.
• True nature of things is unknown and unknowable.

The Kingdom of God Within

• For Kant, the kingdom of God is within man.
• God is present in people's lives.
• Humans duty to move towards the perfect.

Duty as Divine Command

• Kant emphasized that duty is a divine command.
• Moral actions are performed out of a sense of duty, not inclination.
• The categorical imperative determines the moral code of duty.

Paul and Patricia Churchland

• The Churchlands and Neurophilosophy

Who are Paul and Patricia Churchland?

• Paul Churchland is an American philosopher of mind, science, and cognitive neurobiology.
• Patricia Churchland is a philosopher and neuroscientist known for coining "neurophilosophy."
• Both are major figures in eliminative materialism.

Challenging Traditional Notions of Self

• Traditional vocabulary (belief, desire, fear) misrepresents the mind.
• The self is a product of brain activity, not an ethereal soul.
• Experiences are from neuropharmacological states and neural activity.

Neurophilosophy: Bridging the Gap

• Patricia Churchland coined this term.
• Applies neuroscientific conclusions to philosophical problems of the mind.
• Makes use of neuroimaging and cognitive studies and understand consciousness, selfhood, and free will.

The Material Self

• Patricia Churchland emphasizes the brain's biochemical properties as responsible for thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
• The self is an emergent property of complex neural networks.

Eliminative Materialism: A New Framework

• Paul Churchland wants to replace "folk psychology" with a neuroscience based vocabulary.
• Mental states are identical to, reducible to, or explainable by physical brain states.
• Shift required to how mind is understood.

Unraveling The Mind-Body Problem

• Advances in technology help for deeper exploration of the mind-brain connection.
• Deeper knowledge from the brain's physical mechanisms will a more accurate understanding of the self.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

• The Embodied Self

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

• French philosopher and phenomenologist (1908-1961).
• Rejected traditional division of mind and body.
• Emphasized the lived experience of the self as a unified.
• "We are our bodies."

The Lived Body

• Perception isn't sensory input or mental understanding.
• It is an active & embodied engagement with the world.
• Consciousness occurs from bodily interactions with one's surroundings.
• The body is an instrument to make sense of surrounding world.

Interconnectedness

• Introduced the "self-subject".
• Consciousness, the world, and the human body are interdependent.
• The world shape and influence our perception.
• The is not a static entity but is a response to the outside world.

The Role of Phenomenology

• A structure describing lived experience.
• Direct experience, without preconceptions or theories .
• Provides a new framework that promotes understanding human consciousness and action.
• Merleau-Ponty used phenomenology to explore perceptions and the self.

Meaning-Making

• The world isn't a given objective version of reality.
• Human consciousness gives meaning to the world.
• Perceptions frame understanding and the experience of reality.
• Humans are are inseparable from perceptions inside the world.