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Chapter One 1 UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST A HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE SOUL IN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY UP TO THE 20TH CENTURY BY ANSAH RICHARD 2008 UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST A HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE SOUL IN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY UP TO THE 20TH CENTURY BY ANSAH RICHARD B.A (HONS) PHILOSOPHY / HISTORY, CAPE COAST THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN PHILOSOPHY DECEMBER, 2008 ii DECLARATION CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own original research and that no part of it has been presented for another degree in this University or elsewhere. ………………………………………… Date: ………………… ANSAH RICHARD SUPERVISORS’ DECLARATION We hereby declare that the preparation and presentation of the thesis were supervised in accordance with the guidelines on supervision of thesis laid down by the University of Cape Coast. ………………………………………. Date: ……………………….. DR. R. N. OSEI PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR ………………………………………. Date: ………………………. PROF. J. C. K. AGBAKOBA SUPERVISOR ………………………………………. Date: ……………………….. (NAME………………….) SUPERVISOR iii ABSTRACT The problem of the soul and its content(s) is among the most important problems of philosophy. Various theories as to what the term soul designates have claimed to be reconcilable with the tenets of such philosophical concepts as materialism, idealism, dualism, naturalism, etc. One of the definitions of the soul is that the soul is the ultimate internal principle by which one thinks, feels, and wills, and by which the body is animated. The term "mind" usually denotes this principle as the subject of conscious states, while "soul" denotes the source of vegetative activities as well. That a person’s vital activities proceed from a principle capable of subsisting in itself, is the thesis of the substantiality of the soul: that this principle is not itself composite, extended, corporeal, or essentially and intrinsically dependent on the body, is the doctrine of immaterialism. The assertion of an independent principle (in some sense distinct from the body) is highly acclaimed in substance dualism. Substance dualists mostly believe that the mysteries of birth and death, the lapse of conscious life during sleep and in swooning, the operations of imagination and memory, which abstract a man from his material presence even while awake, suggest the inevitable thought of something besides the visible organism. Even so, the issues of what exactly the soul designates, how it relates or does not relate to the body, how that which is immaterial (as the soul is considered to be), etc. have made it very difficult for one to philosophically do espouse the concept of then soul. This essay has tried to assemble the various conceptions of the soul from the pre-Socratic period to the 20th century. It seems, based on the findings so far, that in the absence of a better and an all-embracing definition of what the term soul designates, dualism offers itself as a better option. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ii DECLARATION iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v DEDICATION viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix CHAPTER ONE 1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Introduction 1 Purpose of the study 4 Statement of the problem 5 Hypothesis / Thesis 8 Methodology 9 Limitation / Delimitation 9 Review of literature 10 v CHAPTER TWO 25 PRE-TWENTIETH CENTURY CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL THEORIES OF THE SOUL. 25 The Greek Notion of the soul 25 Pre-Socratic Thinking about the soul 32 Plato’s theories of Soul 34 - The Theory of the Soul in the Phaedo 35 - The Theory of the Soul in the Republic 44 Aristotle’s Theory of Soul 50 Hellenistic Theories of the Soul 53 - Epicurus’ Theory of the Soul 54 - The Stoic Theory of the Soul 57 The Medieval Account of the soul 61 Conclusion 67 CHAPTER THREE 70 TRADITIONAL AND NATURALIST CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL 70 The Dualism in some Modern Traditions 85 The Naturalistic / Scientific conception(s) of the soul 94 CHAPTER FOUR 105 ANALYSES OF CONFLICT(S) ON THE SOUL DEBATE 105 vi The soul-body Problem 107 Dualist Solutions to the Soul-body Problem 107 Monist Solutions to the Soul-body Problem 111 Linguistic Criticism of the Soul-body Problem 117 Evaluation of the various conceptions of the soul 123 Contemporary Secular Accounts on the Soul 135 Conclusion 140 Non-Western Concepts of the Soul 144 CHAPTER FIVE 149 LESSONS AND THE DIRECTION OF EUROPEAN WORLDVIEW OF THE SOUL 149 Conflicting Inputs 164 Attention and Awareness 170 Correlates of Consciousness 172 CHAPTER SIX 195 CONCLUSION 195 General Bibliography 202 vii DEDICATION THIS WORK IS DEDICATED TO DR. R. N. OSEI, FOR HIS LOVE, SUPPORT AND PATIENT; TO PROF. OZUMBA, FOR HIS WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT; TO MY FAMILY AND ALL MY FRIENDS. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work could not have come to fruition but for the support, assistance and love of some personalities. I would, therefore, like to express my unflagging appreciation to all those who contributed in differing ways to make this work a success. I am first and foremost grateful to God for granting me strength when the going got tough. I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to my Head of Department and Principal Supervisor, Dr. R. N. OSEI for his encouragement, motivation and support throughout the pursuance of my masters programme. Indeed, he (Dr. Osei) has been a caring father to me. Also, I am grateful to Professors J. T. Bedu-Addo, Godfrey O. Ozumba and Ayo Fadahunsi for their priceless contribution to bring this work this far. I am grateful for their concerns, suggestions, corrections and constructive criticisms that contributed immensely to put this work in such an appreciable shape. I would again like to thank all the Senior Members in the Department of Classics and Philosophy – UCC for the concern they showed for my well being. I would like to thank, especially, Mr. P. K. T. Grant, Dr. J. C. A Agbakoba, Dr. Ade Ali, Dr. Muyiwa Falaiye, Dr. Jide Dasaolu, Prof. Alozie and Dr. Karo Ogbinaka for their diverse contributions in making this work a success. ix Another appreciation goes to the Administrative Staff of the Department aforesaid. To Mama Faith, Auntie Grace, Auntie Magie, Auntie Rita, Olivia Dzonto, Armstrong Amoasi and Mr. Adjei, I say God richly bless you all. Also, to all my friends and colleagues who supported me to complete this work, I say God Bless you. My appreciation and gratitude also goes to Miss Rejoice Worlasi Fianoo, Miss Patience Oware and all AGCM members for their prayers and other support that helped me through this programme. Finally, I wish to thank all the writers and critics to whom I have acknowledged in the Bibliography. I wish to state that in spite of all the useful corrections, suggestions, comments and other forms of help, all errors in this work are mine. x Chapter One Background To The Study: Introduction Although the world today is, increasingly, in an age of science, the notion of self and mind is largely construed as non material. Central to most traditional conceptions of the human is the idea that the person possesses a soul, an immaterial essence that persists after the physical self disappears. Even if one does not associate oneself with the traditional conception of the soul, one might still suppose that in addition to being bodies, ‘humans’ are also mental agents, in that consciousness and choice depend on something nonphysical above and beyond the brain – though they (those who hold this view) believe that naturalist thinkers might contest this – they insist that this point is cogent. Further, it is widely believed (by the believers and nonbelievers of the soul alike) that ‘man’ has free will, the power to choose without his (man’s) choices being entirely determined by natural causes and circumstances. There is, thus, a conflict, at the deepest level, between traditional mind-body (or soul- body) dualism and the scientific view about man – the view that man is primarily a physical entity, inseparable from animals in the natural world. The real problem is how to reconcile this conflict, the traditional conception of the soul with the naturalist or scientific conception that seems to have no logical space for the existence of immaterial substances. The growth of experimental psychology in the 20th century spawned a wide variety of schools and scientific approaches to the question: the soul and human specificity. Of particular importance is “methodological behaviourism” and “logical behaviourism.” In simple terms, “behaviourists” consider humans as highly complex 1 machines whose laws and workings can be deduced by scientific observation of their external behaviour. Platonic or Cartesian dualisms are strictly excluded. Criticisms of behaviourism did not delay in coming. Yet the perennial dilemma of the relationship between the body and the soul comes to the fore again in terms of the relationship between the mind (which mostly takes the place of the “soul” in this research) and the body. It is often asked: what is the relationship between the self, subjectivity, the mind, on the one hand, and the biological, chemical and physical organism usually termed the brain, on the other? A wide variety of explanations drawing on neurobiology, the cognitive sciences, information theory, computer science, linguistics and sociology, the theory of identity with the associated question of artificial intelligence, that of emergentism and that of interactive dualism have been suggested. Some philosophers find it difficult to swallow, without qualification, the behaviourist conception of the soul or mind and taking issue with the behaviourist position, insist on the ontological independence of the human mind. The human being is more than an automated mechanism driven by stimulus and response.
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