Chapter 9 Dualism Metaphysical Dualism A metaphysical dualist

Chapter 9 Dualism

Metaphysical Dualism • A metaphysical dualist believes that reality is made of up of two kinds of things: – That cannot be fully reduced to one another • Mind–body dualism is theory that a human person is a composite of: – An immaterial mind a material body, each of which can exist without the other © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Plato: The Immortality of the Soul • What kind of thing is liable to suffer dispersion – And for what kind of thing have we to fear dispersion? • What always remains in the same state and unchanging is: – Most likely to be uncompounded © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Plato: The Immortality of the Soul • And what is always changing and never the same is most likely to be compounded • Do you not think that the divine naturally rules and has authority – And that the mortal naturally is ruled and is a slave? © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Degrees of Reality • Plato’s belief that there are degrees of reality – Physical objects; Forms • For each of the degrees of reality, and its corresponding degree of knowledge: – Plato used a specific term © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Degrees of Reality • Plato (428/7 -348/7 b. c. e. ) born in Athens, Plato became a student of Socrates – Mentioned in the Apology as being present at his trial • Plato traveled outside of Greece but returned eventually to Athens: – Where he founded the Academy: 388/7 b. c. e. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Plato: The Divided Line • The visible and the intelligible • A line divided into two unequal parts, – And then divide the two parts again in the same ratio to represent: • The visible and intelligible orders • The capacity for knowledge is innate in each man’s mind © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge Is Knowledge of Forms • What is justice? • Unless we know what justice is: – How will we ever be able to manifest it in human affairs? – The same thing holds for such Ideas as excellence or virtue, piety, and so on © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Allegory of the Cave • We get Plato’s view of the difference between those who claim knowledge: – But only know the particular things of sense experience – And those whose knowledge is of universal principles • Several levels of meaning © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Form of the Good • The Good looms large in Plato’s theory of knowledge: – But he never really tells us what the Good is – The closest he comes to a definition is a simile: • The Good is to knowing as the sun is to seeing © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.