2. Man is yet a mystery in spite ofgreat penetration
intoanthropology, psychology, sociology, and biology. Even yet when
allour studies are complete--if thiswere possible--man may
continueto be a mystery.Man: Mystery and Wonder
3. Arthur Schopenhauer
4. I. Views About the Nature of ManA. A Scientific View of
Man.Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wasborn in Danzig, Germany, and
has thereputation of being the philosopher ofpessimism. He
incorporated the idea of thewill into his philosophy and his
principalwork is The World as Will and Idea.
5. 1. Man is an animal that is akin to all forms oflife. Man is
the result of mechanistic evolutionthat is entirely without help as
implied in aCreator.Simpson notes: "Man is the result of
apurposeless and materialistic processthat did not have him in
mind. He wasnot planned." Purpose is only real whenman is already
here; only man haspurpose.
6. 2.How did man come to be?3.The unique thing about man in
thescientific view is that man thinks.4.How does man acquire
values?
7. B. The Greek Tradition.l. A High God or Eternal God
createdlesser gods who are then given theresponsibility to create
man.2. Man, without women, is created andwithin man is placed a
divine elementor material that is immortal. This maybe described
popularly as mans soulwhich is akin to deity and alien to
thebody.
8. 3. The first men lived cowardly or immoral livesand were
subject to rebirth in the "secondgeneration as women, and it was
therefore atthat point of time that the gods producedsexual love,
constructing in us and in womana living creature itself instinct
with life.4. Bodily existence is second-rate. There are twoemphases
about the body in Platos thoughtthat appear contradictory. The
first may becalled "body-culture" which is related to ourOlympic
tradition. This is seen inthe Republic in which the development of
thebody is a good thing.
9. 5. The wonder of man is reason, and thisrelates to his
deliverance from the body life.Reason is the divine in man. Man
isdescribed as a creature of body and soul, onthe one hand, and as
a tri-part creature onthe other. In the Republic, much emphasis
isgiven to the three-fold elements of mansnature: the rational, the
courageous, and theappetitive. The courageous and appetitiveare
mortal while the rational is immortal.
10. 6. Death does not resolve mans problems.Souls of men who
have not given up theircraving for body existence will be
punishedand imprisoned in another body. Becausethe soul is immortal
it can be released frombodily existence by "attainment of
thehighest virtue and wisdom.7. Since mans highest good is reason,
the wayof deliverance from the problems andtemptations of life is
related to the intellectand contemplation.
11. Socrates
12. 8. Freedom is given a paradoxical treatment.Rationality
implies considerable freedomand equality.9. Virtue is acclaimed by
all three patriarchsof ancient philosophy. The four virtues,wisdom,
courage, temperance, and justice,receive considerable treatment in
the worksof these masters.
13. 10. Conclusions: There is much appealing inthe ancient
Greek view of man. Mansrationality must not be denigrated. But
thelimits of reason need recognition, but toabrogate the mind as is
the tendency inmodern Oriental mystical groups is to
denynature.
14. C. The Judaeo-Christian View.1. God created man and
woman.2. Man is a living soul.3. Man is created in the image of
God.4. Man, though created by God, isalienated from God.5. Man can
only be man in relationshipto God.
15. 6. Christian virtues are somewhatdifferent from the
Greeks.7. It is an article of Christian thoughtthat all men are
equal before God.8. Assessment. Probably the greatestcriticism of
the Christian movement isnot its philosophy, but its practice.
16. II. The Mind-BodyProblems
17. SELF..the self is a created continuingsubstance of a
spiritual nature,related mysteriously to the body, itis active,
free, and immortal.
18. Does a Self Exist?YesNo
19. David Hume
20. David HumeFor my part, I always stumble on some
particularperception or other, of heat or cold, light orshade, love
or hatred, pain or pleasure. I nevercatch myself at any time
without a perception.When my perceptions are removed for anytime,
as by sound sleep; so long am I insensibleof myself, and may truly
be said not to exist.And were all my perceptions removed by
death,and could I neither think, nor feel, nor see, norlove, nor
hate after the dissolution of my body, Ishould be entirely
annihilated, nor do Iconceive what is farther requisite to make me
aperfect non-entity.
21. The association involved is consistentwith his claim that
if no perceptionscame he would be said not to exist.Humes views
have been influentialin both philosophy and psychology.
22. Several problems are raised against Humesposition. First, a
no-self view makes continuous identityimpossible. How would Hume
know that he isthe same person that he was the day before? Forthat
matter the hour before without someperception that he is the same.
Then issameness a perception? For once he had sleptthe night and no
perceptions came to him, hehad been annihilated. When he rises, how
doeshe keep the same identity consciousness.
23. Second, the same applies to memory. The yearspass and many
memories stand clearly in ourminds although we do not have even a
remotechance to be continually furnished with thoselost
perceptions. My memory of swimming inthe Dead Sea is fresh, but my
remoteness to thesea is distant. How can it be part of my"memory"
today if there is not a continuousnessabout my being to retain such
memories? Canan "annihilated self" in Humes terms know
thecontinuing memories to be mine?
24. Third, value judgments becomedifficult on a non-self view.
If the"self" is a summary of perceptions,how does one choose
between thosethat are true and the false? Or, thegood and the bad?
Why not accept allperceptions for truth? Or, good?
25. Ironically, Hume came to confessskepticism about his
position to theappendix of his work. He confessed:But upon a more
strict review of thesection concerning personal identity, Ifind
myself involved in such a labyrinth,that, I must confess, I neither
know howto correct my former opinions, nor how torender them
consistent.
26. Materialism.the theory of materialism holds that theonly
thing that exists is matter or energy.A. The unintelligibility
thesis is that wordslike "thought, wishing, feeling" should
bedropped from use because they have noreal meaning. The mind or
self refers tonothing. The unintelligibility thesis hasnever been
influential because it isdifficult to show that there are
nothoughts, feelings, etc.
27. B. The avowal theory explains thoughts,feelings, wishes, in
terms of behavior, andnot in terms of statements.C. Another attempt
is to admit that thesewords, thoughts and feelings aremeaningful,
but must be explained inphysicalistic terms, or in behavior
terms.D. The identity theory means, then, that amental and physical
state are not really twodifferent things, but one.
28. Epiphenomenalism is the theoryin philosophy of mind that
mentalphenomena are caused by physicalprocesses in the brain or
that both areeffects of a common cause, as opposed tomental
phenomena driving the physicalmechanics of the brain.
29. Yes, the selfdoes exist.
30. Descartes Plato
31. Plato and Descartes.The view of the self as taught by Plato
and Descarteshas been labeled extreme immaterialism. This willbe in
contrast to the position of Aristotle andAquinas which will be
labeled moderateimmaterialism. The body-soul problem in Plato
andDescartes involves the following.The soul is a radically
different substance fromthe body and is in fact alien to it. The
body isunited to the soul to punish the soul. Its unionwith the
body is temporary and unnecessary.The soul can exist and function
without the body.
32. A. Parallelism. The greatest philosophical nameattached to
the view of parallelismwas Leibniz (1646-1716) who thoughtin terms
of the body and mind actingindependently of one another, butalways
in harmony with one another.
33. B. Interactionism. matter and mind being distinct
andindependent, they exert causal effects onone another.Example:
You are outside walking and a wild animalsuddenly crosses your
path. This affects yourmind resulting in your face showing fear
andyou step back. The animal sees your fear,becomes fearful itself,
and retreats back intothe brush. Mind and matter on both sidesjust
interacted without physically touchingeach other.
34. AristotleAristotle did not accept the extremeview of the
spirit that Plato had. ForPlato, mans soul could exist and
thinkoutside of a body, but Aristotle taughtthat the good of the
soul is to be unitedto a body so that it can think andexercise its
abilities.
