Philosophy of Religion and Ethics Revision:
All of Year 1 Condensed
The Only Bumper Pack of Notes You Will Need
1. Philosophy
2. Ethics
3. Developments in Christian Thought
,Page of Contents:
● Soul, Mind and Body: Philosophy Revision:
● The Ontological Argument: Philosophy Revision:
● Religious Experience: Philosophy Revision:
● The Problem of Evil: Philosophy Revision:
● Arguments From Observation: Philosophy Revision:
● Ancient Philosophical Influences: Philosophy Revision:
● Business: Ethics Revision:
● Euthanasia: Ethics Revision:
● Kant: Ethics Revision:
● Natural Moral Law: Ethics Revision:
● Situation Ethics: Ethics Revision:
● Utilitarianism: Ethics Revision:
● The Person of Jesus: Developments in Christian Thought Revision:
● Death and the Afterlife: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● Christian Moral Principles: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● Christian Moral Action: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● Knowledge of God’s Existence: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● St Augustine: Developments in Christian Thought Revision:
,Soul, Mind and Body: Philosophy Revision:
Key:
〇- Quotes
〇- Key Words
〇- Case Studies
〇- Thinkers
*highlighted at first mention
Plato:
● Sought certainty, arguing that if such permanence did not exist in the material
world, then it had to exist in another, with the anima (soul) needing to be
immortal in order to experience this (in also being separate from this world).
● The Soul is the essential and immaterial part of a human.
● Plato describes the soul in his book ‘Phaedo’, ‘On the Soul’), with the likes of
being: divine, intelligible, eternal, perfect, immortal and uniform (constant).
● Plato supports both the arguments of the soul being disembodied and
embodied.
● Believed that the soul exited in 2 parts: mental and physical - a dualist theory.
● Plato asserted that the soul is disembodied at the point of death (reaching the
‘noeton’ posthumously), and then embodied once more through
‘metempsychosis’.
● Plato’s Tripartite Divisions of the Soul:
1. Appetitive (desire): satisfying the body’s needs (such as the likes of gluttony and
concupiscence) - associated with the craftsmen of the Republic.
2. Spirited (passion): our will / virtues (such as the likes of victory) - represented by
the auxiliary classes.
3. Rational (reason): intellectual and truth-seeking characteristics (such as the
likes of wisdom (sofia) - associated with the philosopher rulers.
➔ Plato’s Allegory of the Charioteer:
In the book ‘Phaedrus’, Plato outlines the manner in which the tripartite divisions of the
soul conflict:
1. Black horse: appetitive and dies with the body.
2. White horse: spirited + leads the soul to the noeton.
3. Charioteer: is the rational component of the soul that takes charge.
Balance of the winged horses is required for a smooth flight.
● The Horaton (Body):
- “The body is the source of endless trouble” - Plato, ‘Phadrus’.
- Argues that the body is often overcome by needs, withholding us from
realising our full potential, it is prone to illness, and Plato goes so far as
to argue that it removes us from the power of thinking at all.
Plato’s arguments for dualism in summary:
➔ Plato’s ‘argument from knowledge’: Plato asserted that the process of ‘learning’
may merely be reduced to recalling what the soul has previously known in the
Realm of Forms, that has since been forgotten. He provides an ‘example of
equals’ to demonstrate the point that he attempts to make, suggesting that one
is able to examine the world and see many things are visibly equal - such as
stones of the same size. Plato continues by adding that although nobody in this
world has seen the ‘form of equals’ the concept is still one that is familiar to us,
, adding that when people come to understand something they recognise it to
be of veracity. Indeed, facts of science and maths are true long before we
establish them to be true. In ‘Meno’, Plato uses the analogy of a slave boy who
works his way through a mathematical problem proposed to him by Socrates,
though he has had no education - this suggests such knowledge may be
considered innate, with the explanation being that our souls have previously
experience life in the realm of the Forms.
- It could be argued that such an argument is weak, as the notion that there is
innate knowledge from some source such as God’s design may be discredited -
for example, mathematics itself could be a human invented language for
describing the world, rather than the discovery of eternal laws.
➔ Plato’s ‘argument from opposites’: Plato recognised that comprising the
physical world are many opposites - such as the likes of light and dark, and
small and large. He assured that each thing comes from its opposite - for
example, take the manner in which sleep follows being awake, and being awake
follows sleep. Indeed, Plato also proposed that the opposite of life is death, and
furthermore, that since dying comes from previous being alive, being alive must
come from before the state of being dead - supporting ideas of
metempsychosis. In ‘Phaedo’ Plato exemplifies such an idea through grants
being reincarnated as the like of wolves, drunks as donkeys, and, those superior
- such as the souls of philosophers - who see the forms, enjoy the company of
the Gods.
- It could be argued that such an argument is weak, as not all things occur as
opposites, and it could be argued (as Augustine does) that the lack of some
things may simply be described as another’s privation - for example, evil does
not exist, and is rather a ‘privatio boni’ (an absence of good).
➔ 3. Plato’s ‘argument from affinity’: In ’Phaedo’, Socrates claims that composite
things (made of multiple parts) are liable to be destroyed, due to the world
being full of processes that pull them apart, in contrast to those that are
metaphysically ‘simple’, which do not. This is illustrated through the forms,
which are entities in their own right - and thus, supposedly, least likely ever to
be annihilated. Furthermore, they are indivisible ideas that are eternal - and
thus never liable to change. Indeed, things that are invisible - including the likes
of the forms aren’t disintegrated, whereas visible, physical ones are subject to
decay and corruption. The body fulfils the criteria of being both visible and
composite, it is therefore the subject of decomposition at the end of its life,
whereas the soul, to the contrary, is invisible, sharing an affinity with the forms,
it must henceforth also be eternal, outlasting the physical body. In addition,
‘reason’ itself participates in the strongest of all affinities with the forms, as it is
the forms themselves that reason contemplates. This means that the afterlife is
particularly pleasant for the likes of philosophers, whom are at liberty to
contemplate the forms free from the distractions of the physical world, whereas
those who are consumed by desires - such as the likes of gluttony, will be
overmastered by ‘want’.
- It could be argued that such an argument is weak, as Plato’s argument makes
the assumption that the mind is a non-physical thing rather than being
electrical-chemical activity in the physical brain.
René Descartes:
● Supported Plato’s dualist arguments.
● As a rationalist, he begins by asking if there are any elements of knowledge so
certain that no doubt may be cast upon them, noting that all empirical sense
All of Year 1 Condensed
The Only Bumper Pack of Notes You Will Need
1. Philosophy
2. Ethics
3. Developments in Christian Thought
,Page of Contents:
● Soul, Mind and Body: Philosophy Revision:
● The Ontological Argument: Philosophy Revision:
● Religious Experience: Philosophy Revision:
● The Problem of Evil: Philosophy Revision:
● Arguments From Observation: Philosophy Revision:
● Ancient Philosophical Influences: Philosophy Revision:
● Business: Ethics Revision:
● Euthanasia: Ethics Revision:
● Kant: Ethics Revision:
● Natural Moral Law: Ethics Revision:
● Situation Ethics: Ethics Revision:
● Utilitarianism: Ethics Revision:
● The Person of Jesus: Developments in Christian Thought Revision:
● Death and the Afterlife: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● Christian Moral Principles: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● Christian Moral Action: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● Knowledge of God’s Existence: Developments in Christian Thought
Revision:
● St Augustine: Developments in Christian Thought Revision:
,Soul, Mind and Body: Philosophy Revision:
Key:
〇- Quotes
〇- Key Words
〇- Case Studies
〇- Thinkers
*highlighted at first mention
Plato:
● Sought certainty, arguing that if such permanence did not exist in the material
world, then it had to exist in another, with the anima (soul) needing to be
immortal in order to experience this (in also being separate from this world).
● The Soul is the essential and immaterial part of a human.
● Plato describes the soul in his book ‘Phaedo’, ‘On the Soul’), with the likes of
being: divine, intelligible, eternal, perfect, immortal and uniform (constant).
● Plato supports both the arguments of the soul being disembodied and
embodied.
● Believed that the soul exited in 2 parts: mental and physical - a dualist theory.
● Plato asserted that the soul is disembodied at the point of death (reaching the
‘noeton’ posthumously), and then embodied once more through
‘metempsychosis’.
● Plato’s Tripartite Divisions of the Soul:
1. Appetitive (desire): satisfying the body’s needs (such as the likes of gluttony and
concupiscence) - associated with the craftsmen of the Republic.
2. Spirited (passion): our will / virtues (such as the likes of victory) - represented by
the auxiliary classes.
3. Rational (reason): intellectual and truth-seeking characteristics (such as the
likes of wisdom (sofia) - associated with the philosopher rulers.
➔ Plato’s Allegory of the Charioteer:
In the book ‘Phaedrus’, Plato outlines the manner in which the tripartite divisions of the
soul conflict:
1. Black horse: appetitive and dies with the body.
2. White horse: spirited + leads the soul to the noeton.
3. Charioteer: is the rational component of the soul that takes charge.
Balance of the winged horses is required for a smooth flight.
● The Horaton (Body):
- “The body is the source of endless trouble” - Plato, ‘Phadrus’.
- Argues that the body is often overcome by needs, withholding us from
realising our full potential, it is prone to illness, and Plato goes so far as
to argue that it removes us from the power of thinking at all.
Plato’s arguments for dualism in summary:
➔ Plato’s ‘argument from knowledge’: Plato asserted that the process of ‘learning’
may merely be reduced to recalling what the soul has previously known in the
Realm of Forms, that has since been forgotten. He provides an ‘example of
equals’ to demonstrate the point that he attempts to make, suggesting that one
is able to examine the world and see many things are visibly equal - such as
stones of the same size. Plato continues by adding that although nobody in this
world has seen the ‘form of equals’ the concept is still one that is familiar to us,
, adding that when people come to understand something they recognise it to
be of veracity. Indeed, facts of science and maths are true long before we
establish them to be true. In ‘Meno’, Plato uses the analogy of a slave boy who
works his way through a mathematical problem proposed to him by Socrates,
though he has had no education - this suggests such knowledge may be
considered innate, with the explanation being that our souls have previously
experience life in the realm of the Forms.
- It could be argued that such an argument is weak, as the notion that there is
innate knowledge from some source such as God’s design may be discredited -
for example, mathematics itself could be a human invented language for
describing the world, rather than the discovery of eternal laws.
➔ Plato’s ‘argument from opposites’: Plato recognised that comprising the
physical world are many opposites - such as the likes of light and dark, and
small and large. He assured that each thing comes from its opposite - for
example, take the manner in which sleep follows being awake, and being awake
follows sleep. Indeed, Plato also proposed that the opposite of life is death, and
furthermore, that since dying comes from previous being alive, being alive must
come from before the state of being dead - supporting ideas of
metempsychosis. In ‘Phaedo’ Plato exemplifies such an idea through grants
being reincarnated as the like of wolves, drunks as donkeys, and, those superior
- such as the souls of philosophers - who see the forms, enjoy the company of
the Gods.
- It could be argued that such an argument is weak, as not all things occur as
opposites, and it could be argued (as Augustine does) that the lack of some
things may simply be described as another’s privation - for example, evil does
not exist, and is rather a ‘privatio boni’ (an absence of good).
➔ 3. Plato’s ‘argument from affinity’: In ’Phaedo’, Socrates claims that composite
things (made of multiple parts) are liable to be destroyed, due to the world
being full of processes that pull them apart, in contrast to those that are
metaphysically ‘simple’, which do not. This is illustrated through the forms,
which are entities in their own right - and thus, supposedly, least likely ever to
be annihilated. Furthermore, they are indivisible ideas that are eternal - and
thus never liable to change. Indeed, things that are invisible - including the likes
of the forms aren’t disintegrated, whereas visible, physical ones are subject to
decay and corruption. The body fulfils the criteria of being both visible and
composite, it is therefore the subject of decomposition at the end of its life,
whereas the soul, to the contrary, is invisible, sharing an affinity with the forms,
it must henceforth also be eternal, outlasting the physical body. In addition,
‘reason’ itself participates in the strongest of all affinities with the forms, as it is
the forms themselves that reason contemplates. This means that the afterlife is
particularly pleasant for the likes of philosophers, whom are at liberty to
contemplate the forms free from the distractions of the physical world, whereas
those who are consumed by desires - such as the likes of gluttony, will be
overmastered by ‘want’.
- It could be argued that such an argument is weak, as Plato’s argument makes
the assumption that the mind is a non-physical thing rather than being
electrical-chemical activity in the physical brain.
René Descartes:
● Supported Plato’s dualist arguments.
● As a rationalist, he begins by asking if there are any elements of knowledge so
certain that no doubt may be cast upon them, noting that all empirical sense
