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Plato's Four Types Of Epistemological Dualism

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Dualism is the philosophy that the mind and the body are not identical. For Plato things in existence for human beings, what we can see with our eyes, are only ideas and what is real is the forms which exist outside of human sight. The example Plato used is that a simple thing such as a bed would be linked to the perfect idea of a bed that exists independently. Plato saw the mind being identical with the soul but he argued that the soul goes through a continuous process of reincarnation. There are four main types of dualism: substance dualism, property dualism, predicate dualism, and epistemological dualism. Substance dualism argues that the mind is an independent substance. Property dualism is the idea that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from the brain, but is not distinct. Predicate dualism argues that more than one predicate is required for the world to make sense, and that the psychological experiences we go through cannot be …show more content…

Plato uses the example of a young child who had no knowledge in geometry or trigonometry, can be trained to have knowledge that he did not know he possessed. Plato uses the argument that he would not be able to display the knowledge unless he recollected it.
The third argument is called the indestructibility of the soul (the affinity argument). This argument attempts to prove that the soul survives death. Since the body is mortal, it constantly changes and is made of different parts, the soul must be immortal and unchanging because it is not composed of many parts. And the last argument (the argument from opposites) states that since death is the opposite of life, and opposites are interrelated (according to the cyclical argument), then when the human body dies, life must go on. This also relates back to the affinity argument because the soul survives

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Before modern philosophy, Plato wrote numerous important philosophical works during his lifetime, but some of the more important ones are his works involving Socrates. With these works, Plato touched upon important beliefs that seem clear-cut to us, but are much more complicated than believed. One of these beliefs involves the meaning and importance of knowledge. The topic of knowledge is important in his works Protagoras, Euthydemus, and Meno. There are three points he brings up involving proper knowledge: the importance of good teaching, the necessity of knowledge to do what is best in the world, and how virtue is a type of knowledge.

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Plato claims that the soul is immortal because of his argument of Opposites, to which I agree. Socrates says, “For all things that come to be… [come] from their opposites if they have such...” and “…those that have an opposite must…come to be from their opposite and from nowhere else.” (70e) Socrates argues the opposites of Bigness and Smallness. For something to be considered big, it must have first been smaller, and for something to be considered small, it must have come from being big.

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Power is used in our everyday life in many different forms, in many different ways, through many different people. But this leads to the question of what is really power? Power is when someone with a higher authority has the control over someone or something. Power was usually represented in the Renaissance with kings, queens, and or the churches. People of the lower, class such as peasants or knights, usually followed orders of those who held the higher power.

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In Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, he explains the soul and comes to the conclusion that the soul is immortal. Through describing the last hours of Socrates life before his execution, he lays out three arguments in support of the idea that while the body may cease to exist the soul cannot perish. In this paper, I will explicate Socrates three arguments for the immortality of the soul and their objections. Then I will argue on the presupposition of the Law of Conservation of Mass, that the universe, entailing the soul, must be cyclical. The Law of Conservation of Mass

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The final argument of Plato’s Phaedo was created to prove souls cannot perish. Plato does so by arguing how a soul cannot die nor cease to exist on the same fundamental grounds of how the number three can never be even. For the number three holds the essence of being odd, without being odd entirely. Similarly, a soul holds the essence of life through immortality, however the soul is not immortal itself and only participates in immortality, just as the number three participates in being odd. Additionally, an essence or form cannot admit to the opposite of itself just as small cannot be large simultaneously, and hot cannot be cold.

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In Plato’s, Phaedo, one of the arguments that Socrates makes for justifying his theory about the soul being immortal is the argument of opposites. The argument of opposites is found from 70c to 72c in the Phaedo. The argument is not logically valid as there are a few fallacies that occur with the definition of opposites with which Socrates defines his argument. This argument ultimately fails at being logically valid as contrary to premise 1, all things that have an opposite do not come from only their opposites. Socrates also does not specify in this argument whether he is referring to the soul dying or the body dying in the final premises.

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The intelligible world (the world of Forms) that gives the visible world it’s being.” (16) He believed that the soul exists without the body, and that we obtain wisdom from our thoughts and therefore we inherit this at the start of conception. Plato thinking were based on the divine being, who he believes made us, and the objects of the world. He believed, the soul was already formed, as what we see here on earth is just a reflection of what is already made.

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I believe that Aristotle’s ideas are more significant as they closer to western beliefs than Plato’s. Similarities can be found in religion, art, government, and evolution. Unlike Plato, Aristotle believed in the idea of a god, much like many people today. He believed that God was the First thing to exist, separate from all matter and is the ultimate form. As well as is a pure minded being.

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Substance dualism is a particular philosophy which Descartes takes a stance on. Descartes argues that two substances (mind and body) exist separately and it is evident from great distinction between the two. Spinoza agrees mind and body are different, but not to the extent that they are two separate substances (Def. 3). He explains that if mind and body were two existing substances, they would be so different that they could not interact (Prop.2). This interaction of thought to body or vise versa couldn 't exist since no common ground resides.

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The term ‘dualism’ has a variety of uses if we see the previous literature. In common sense, the notion is that, for any particular area of interest, there are two commonly different classes of things. In theory, for example a ‘dualist’ is one who believes that Good and Evil-or God and the Devil-are independent and more or less equal forces in the world. Dualism compare with monism, which is the theory that there is only one significant type, category of thing and rather less commonly, with pluralism, which is commonly referred to as many categories. In the philosophy of mind, dualism is the theory that the mind and body are, in some sense, totally different types of thing.

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