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The Foundations of Religion
PLATO
a brief introduction
• Plato was a follower
of Socrates.
• Socrates execution
was a crushing blow
to him.
• Plato left Athens,
believing that “until
kings were philosophers
or philosophers were
kings” all would not
go well with the world.
• In 387 BCE he
• They are a useful
returned to Athens
foundation for an
and founded the
understanding of key
Academy (first
concepts which are of
university).
perennial concern to
religious thought and
• Plato's work consist of
philosophy,
a series of dialogues
particularly the nature
between Socrates
of reality and
and others presented
knowledge, and the
in a highly
distinction between
characteristic style,
body and soul.
known as the Socratic
method.
the difference
between the world of
appearances and the
real world.
• H.D.F. Kitto observed
that:' It was Greek
philosophy, notably,
Plato's conception of
the absolute, eternal
• Only what is
deity, which prepared
permanent can be the
the world for the
source of true
reception of a universal
knowledge, not the
religion’.
objects of the physical
world, which are
• Plato used his famous
always changing.
‘analogy/allegory’ of
the cave to draw
attention to
• The unchanging
realities are those that
Plato believed could
only be apprehended
by the mind, since
those we experience
through the sense are
only imperfect copies.
• The truly unchanging,
imperfect and
ultimately unknowable
reality should
therefore be man’s
goal, despite the
difficulties of achieving
it. In the
allegory/analogy,
Plato described a
group of chained
prisoners who could
only look ahead,
although a fire behind
them threw shadows
on the wall. They
know nothing other
than a life in the cave,
so they naturally
perceived it to be
reflective of reality.
According to Plato,
this is like the mind of
the unthinking man,
who simply accepts
what he hears and
never questions
whether it is valuable,
good or true.
• Plato's theory of the
Forms developed
ideas about goodness
and reality
• The prisoners in the
cave would always be
condemned to
accepting a pale copy
of the truth as reality,
and so would never
be able to apprehend
the true, absolute
Form of the Good, the
highest of the realities
which illuminates all
others.
• Aquinas’s Fourth
way,' From the
Graduation of Things’,
was heavily
influenced by Plato
and pointed to the
need for a highest
source of goodness,
truth and nobility,
which Aquinas
identified as God.
• These unchanging
concepts could never
be encountered in the
physical world, but
Plato believed that we
have an instinctive, if
imperfect,
appreciation of them.
• This, he believed,
indicates that man
has an immortal, preexistent soul, which
has encountered
these forms before
becoming imprisoned
in the physical body.
• The soul is immortal
and immutable, unlike
the body, which is a
physical entity, and so
changeable and
imperfect.
• Death will bring about
the final separation of
body and soul,
when the soul will be
able to re-enter the
eternal realm from
which it came.
ARISTOTLE
• At the age of 17,
accusation of impiety
Aristotle entered
against Aristotle, he
Plato’s Academy in
retired to Chalcis and
Athens, and remained
died there the
there until Plato’s
following year.
death, later founding
• Aristotle was an
his own school, the
empiricist philosopher
Lyceum.
who was devoted to
• Following the death of
deepening his
Alexander the Great
understanding of
in Babylon in 323
experience.
BCE, and an
• Brian Magee wrote
that Aristotle was
“working always from
inside experience,
never trying to impose
abstract explanations
on it from the outside.”
• Aristotle looked for
scientific explanations
and asked important
questions about their
nature.
• Although none of his
works he prepared for
publication have
survived, for
hundreds of years his
work constituted the
largest systematic
body of knowledge in
existence.
• Aristotle rejected
Plato’s theory of the
Forms since, as an
empiricist, he did not
believe that true
reality could not be
encountered in the
real world.
• On the contrary, he
maintained that the
only real knowledge
we have is of the
empirical world, and
the only reliable
information is that
which can be gained
from it.
• One of the key
questions that
Aristotle sought to
answer was what it
means for something
to exist.
•
He identified four
causes, culminating
in a complete
explanation of what
causes something to
exist.
1. The material
cause of
something answers
the question “What
does it consist of?”
2. The efficient
cause answers the
question “How did it
happen?”
3. The formal
cause answers the
question “What are
it’s characteristics?”
4. The final cause
answers the
question “Why is it
here? Or what is it’s
purpose or telos?
• Aristotle was also
interested in tracing
all movements back
to a first mover and it
is clear that the first of
Aquinas’s Five Ways,
an important part of
the Cosmological
Argument for the
existence of God, is
directly dependent on
the thought of
Aristotle.
• Aristotle observed
that a chain of movers
had to begin with an
unmoved or prime
Mover, something
which is not in itself
moved, but which
could cause other
things to move.
• He called this first
mover God, a final
cause in itself, which
causes things to be
not simply through
physical or
mechanical
momentum, but
through an act of
love.
• Because all things
want to be in the
image of God’s
perfection, they are
drawn towards him,
the necessary being
which is eternally
good and on whom all
other things depend.
• Aristotle saw the
relationship between
body and soul as a
psycho-physical unity,
the soul and the body
being as inseparable
from each other as
“the wax and the
shape given to it
by the stamp.”
• The human soul is
essentially the body
and it’s organisation,
but Aristotle did
identify another
quality that it
possesses—reason.
• This provides the
means by which
humans can develop
intellectually and
morally.
• One of the key issues
discussed within the
Philosophy of Mind
(otherwise known as
philosophical
psychology) is how
the mind is related to
the body. This is also
relevant for the
philosophy of religion,
because religion is
concerned with
“selves”, “souls” or
“minds”.
• Questions are asked
such as:
 What is the “self”?
 Is it the same as the
“soul”?
 And are both of them
simply ways of
describing the “mind”?
 Does “mind” simply
refer to the thinking
side of a human being
or to something more?
• Philosophers have
debated how “minds”
and “bodies” and
“souls” are related to
one another for
thousands of years.
• There are three broad
possibilities
 That “minds” are
unreal; there are only
“bodies”—Materialism
 That “bodies” are
unreal; there are only
“minds”—Idealism
 There exist both
“bodies” and “minds”,
distinct from one
another, but linked
together in some
way—Dualism
• Dualism
“A spiritual soul cannot
be corrupted, since it
possesses no physical
matter . . . The human
soul cannot die.”
--Maritain, in Range
of Reason
Those who take the
Dualistic view of the
body and mind say
that the body is an
outer shell for the real
self, which is within
the mind. This is
often known as the
soul. The body will
die, but the soul is
separate and
immortal and
continues after the
death of the physical
body.
PLATO
Plato suggested that
the body belongs to
the physical world
and will one day turn
to dust. However, the
soul belongs to a
higher realm where
eternal truths, such as
justice, love and
goodness, will endure
forever.
The aim of the soul is
to break free from the
physical world and fly
to the realm of
ideas—the spiritual
realm, where it will be
able to spend eternity
in contemplation of
the truth.
• For Plato the body is
physical and therefore
has extension, i.e. it is
located in space,
whereas the self is
that which thinks, and
it has no extension.
He thought of the self
as a thinking being,
and therefore distinct
from the body and
capable of living
without it. So from
Plato you have a
radical Dualism of
thinking self and
physical body.
ARISTOTLE
• Aristotle took a
different approach.
He considered the
soul to be the “form”
of the body; it is what
turns flesh, bone, and
all other components
into a living individual.
But a soul is one thing
and a rational mind
quite another;
human beings have a
soul, or self, that is
capable of an
intellectual life.
Animals may have
feelings and
sensations, but only
humans can reflect on
them and grasp
general principles as
a result of them.
• Crucial to both Plato
and Aristotle is the
mind’s ability to grasp
“universals” (general
terms, e.g.
“goodness” as
opposed to individual
good things).
• For the Greeks it was
the rational mind that
separated humankind
from the beasts.
• Humans know
general truths by
considering
universals, which sum
up and interpret
individual things.
• Through the ability to
understand
universals, people
come into touch with
eternal truths; without
it they would be
forever trapped in the
world of their
immediate
experience.
• GREEK TERMS
Sarx—the physical
body (flesh and
blood)
Soma—the organised
body, with it’s
activities and
characteristics
Psyche—the
sensations and
emotions (also found
in animals)
Pneuma—the
rational, spiritual
aspect of humankind;
mental activity
Nous—the thinking
mind.
• Note: the important
thing here is to note
the distinction
between psyche (in
the sense of animal
life, awareness,
sensations, etc) and
pneuma (mental
activity):
For the Greeks,
sense perception was
on the “body” side of
the body/mind
dualism.
Later, Descartes (in
the C17th) included in
the “mind”, all the
feelings and
sensations that he
could describe, but
which he could not
locate physically.
So, when we come to
look at Dualism, we
need to be aware
that, within Western
thought, there have
been two distinct
forms--
the pre-Cartesian
form, with mental
activity distinguished
from the body and it’s
sensations, and the
Cartesian (i.e. from
Descartes) where
everything nonphysical becomes
part of the “mind”.