More handpicked essays just for you.
Music and its effect on the mind body and spirit
How music affects soul, spirit and body
Music and its effect on the mind body and spirit
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Music and its effect on the mind body and spirit
Toni Hubert
PHL 130
Section G
Soulful Minds
April 29, 2014
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything (Plato).” What is the soul? The soul is a directing force of the body. It in control of the body, using it as a materialistic entity, and the soul can leave at any time that it deems necessary. The soul is a guide of the mind and body to work together to obtain a equilibrium so their lives are not overcome by physical pleasures or sensual pleasures that can be overseen and control our lives.
Plato states that there are three parts to the soul: reason, emotion, and desire. Soul is life. Plato says that even inanimate objects have soul. The body is holding the three parts inside to hopefully regulate and create inner peace with the different entities. Within the soul however, the mind works to create the “ideal.” The mind works with the soul to create an equilibrium. There is this sense of duality present with the body and mind. However, according to Aquinas, he is the combination of his soul and body. He would only exist...
Many ancient philosophers, including Plato, explored metaphysics in relation to reality before Descartes’s in-depth questioning of the subject. However, Descartes’s views on mind/body dualism differ greatly from Plato’s. As Marleen Rozemond (author of Descartes's Dualism) points out, Plato believes that the body is simply a vessel for the soul to use, while Descartes provides proof that the body and soul are interconnected (172). One does not simply use the other; though they are separate, the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. Cartesian dualism tells us that "although the whole mind seems to be united to the whole body, I recognize that if a foot or arm or any other part of the body is cut off, nothing has thereby been taken away from the mind" (414). However, Descartes also states that "nature also teaches me by . . . [sensations] that I am not merely present in my body as a sailor is present in a ship, but that I am very closely joined and, as it were, intermingled with it, so that I and the body form a unit" (412). Descartes shows through his dualism that though the mind and body are separate entities, they are connected and reliant on one another. This is one key idea that separates Descartes from great thinkers like Plato. Add another Rozemond quote.
Bruder and Kenneth (2014) wrote that Plato also had his own theory of souls. According to Plato’s Republic, the human soul consists of three different elements. One of these souls consists of raw appetites. This soul includes our basic desires for various pleasures, comforts, physical satisfaction, and bodily ease (Kerns, n.d). Another of Plato’s souls consists of drives, or anger and ambition (Bruder & Kenneth, 2014, p.288). Kerns (n.d) described this soul as being spirited, in this sense meaning to be with high-energy and power, or hot blooded. It gets angry when it perceives injustice, for example, being done. This is also the part if us that loves to face and overcome great challenges, as well as loves victory, winning, challenge, and honor.
Soul is a very difficult term. It is thought by many to be a spirit that passes
The differences of mind and soul have intrigued mankind since the dawn of time, Rene Descartes, Thomas Nagel, and Plato have addressed the differences between mind and matter. Does the soul remain despite the demise of its material extension? Is the soul immaterial? Are bodies, but a mere extension of forms in the physical world? Descartes, Nagel, and Plato agree that the immaterial soul and the physical body are distinct entities.
Once Descartes recognizes the indubitable truth that he exists, he then attempts to further his knowledge by discovering the type of thing that he is. Trying to understand what he is, Descartes recalls Aristotle's definition of a human as a rational animal. This is unsatisfactory since this requires investigation into the notions of "rational" and "animal". Continuing his quest for identity, he recalls a more general view he previously had of his identity, which is that he is composed of both body and soul. According to classical philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, the key attributes of the soul involve eating, movement, and sensation. He can't claim to h...
A soul has always been thought of as that part of us that makes a human, a human. We believe that if we are good we will go to heaven and if we are bad we will go to hell, at least, that 's what the Christian religion is that I was raised as growing up. But I had always wondered if that was it and there was more to it than that. I was right, getting information from BuddhaSasana, and an article was written titled "Is there an Eternal soul?". The article goes on to explain that apparently we humans don 't have a soul and we are not born with one and no God has ever created one. What we call our personality and ourselves is technically our soul. A very interesting metaphor that is used in this article was
The soul cannot be completely defined or described, but it is the only thing we can be absolutely sure of, since all other facts are temporary. Being ourselves allows us to obtain many more answers and to understand our unconscious intentions. Humans may exceed their limited ideas by realizing that God exists and that in Him, we will find many answers if we open ourselves to Him. The soul is the creative essence, while all creation, including art which is human unity with natural things, is said to be Nature. In Nature the soul sees the picture of its own pure essence manifest, seeing beauty, truth, and justice in its laws.
...of the body, and no problem arises of how soul and body can be united into a substantial whole: ‘there is no need to investigate whether the soul and the body are one, any more than the wax and the shape, or in general the matter of each thing and that of which it is the matter; for while “one” and “being” are said in many ways, the primary [sense] is actuality’ (De anima 2.1, 12B6–9).Many twentieth-century philosophers have been looking for just such a via media between materialism and dualism, at least for the case of the human mind; and much scholarly attention has gone into asking whether Aristotle’s view can be aligned with one of the modern alternatives, or whether it offers something preferable to any of the modern alternatives, or whether it is so bound up with a falsified Aristotelian science that it must regretfully be dismissed as no longer a live option.
Through the course of these last few weeks, we as a class have discussed the Soul, both in concept, and as it applies in terms of our readings of The Phaedo and as a philosophical construct. But the questions involved in that: In the ideas of good, of living a ‘good’ life and getting ‘rid of the body and of their wickedness’, as ‘there is no escape from evil’, (Phaedo, 107c), in whether or not the soul is immortal, or if our bodies themselves get in the way of some higher form of knowledge, or even of the importance of philosophy itself are rather complex, simultaneously broad and specific, and more than a little messy. While I discuss these aspects, the singular question that I feel applies to this is, in a sort of nihilistic fashion, does
Throughout the evolution of philosophic thought, there have been many different views on the relationship of mind and body. The great philosopher Plato and the Neoplatonists held the belief that man's body is merely a prison of his soul, but St. Augustine later refutes this with his idea of the disembodied soul. He distinguishes between the concept of the physical form and the spiritual soul, and he argues that humankind can be redeemed because of the God spirit contained in the intellectual soul. This intellectual soul is not an inseparable part of the body, as St. Thomas Aquinas postulates. Instead, this soul is indeed the higher part of man, the state and well-being of man depends upon its stability.
Mindfulness is arguably one of the best things a human can do when it comes to relieving stress. Some can argue that that the best way to relieve stress would be to exercise or consume alcohol, but mindfulness is different in the fact that a person can stay focused without being judgemental (Davis & Hayes, 2010). This is critical when it comes to relieving stress because college can mentally weigh a person down. If a post-secondary student is able to effectively use mindfulness based stress reduction, this could help relieve the stress and prevent future problems such as depression or anxiety. Although there are many methods in relieving stress, mindfulness based stress reduction is a beneficial method in relieving college students’ stress
For Descartes, these are mind and body, and for Plato they are body and soul. Aristotle, in contrast, believes in a singular being where both body and soul are connected. For myself, a Christian who believes in the existence of a life after death, Aristotle 's theory creates an obvious negation. While I could agree with the levels of the soul argument, I cannot agree with the body and soul being one and the same for the simple reason that I do not believe that when the body dies, everything dies. I believe something is left over. What that something is, where it goes and what its purpose is, I may not know for certain, but to believe otherwise would not create a better life for me. Believing the soul lives on beyond the body creates an inner desire to seek morality and goodness, and it is in that endeavor that one creates a “better” life. Similarly, it is intuition that leads me to reject Descartes ' argument because my best judgment would tell me not to believe that everything I know, all that I sense, is a figment of my mind. I cannot know if such a thing is true or false, but far too many questions are raised by such an explanation. For myself, neither Aristotle nor Descartes provide an adequate understanding into the nature of the
Plato believed that the body and the soul were two separate entities, the body being mortal and the soul being immortal. In Plato’s phaedo, this is further explained by Socrates. He claims that by living a philosophical life, we are able to eventually free the soul from the body and its needs. If we have not yield to our bodily needs, we should not fear death, since it can than permanently detach the soul from the body. The most convincing argument for the immortality of the body is the theory of recollection, which shows that we are already born with knowledge of forms and that learning is thus recalling these ideas. If we are already born with knowledge this implies that are soul is immortal, since it would otherwise be a blank page.
The soul can be defined as a perennial enigma that one may never understand. But many people rose to the challenge of effectively explaining just what the soul is about, along with outlining its desires. Three of these people are Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine. Even though all three had distinctive views, the similarities between their views are strikingly vivid. The soul indeed is an enigma to mankind and the only rational explanation of its being is yet to come and may never arrive.
According to Hutchison (2015), “religion is symbolic patterns that consists of values, beliefs, behaviors and experiences” (p. 184). I personal conceptualize spirituality as a vital role in my life that helps me during a time of sickness, forgiveness, and needed guidance. Spirituality helps guide me throughout life during the difficult times I have encountered. Spirituality impacts my life in positive ways that influence and regulate my behavior and health. Health is very important to me; I believe the spirit can heal a person from their sickness. It seems that the spirit heals me every time I pray to be healed from sickness. The spirit gives me strength at a time of weakness. When I feel at my lowest point in life I call on the spirit to pick