InfoCoBuild

PHIL 176: Death

Lecture 09 - Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.). Professor Kagan elaborates on the "argument from simplicity" and discusses in detail Plato's claims that the soul is simple, changeless and therefore indestructible. The final Platonic argument under discussion is the "argument from essential properties" in which the essential properties of the soul are addressed. At the end of the lecture the question of whether one needs to argue for physicalism is posed. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 09 - Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.)

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Assumptions Made in the Argument from Simplicity
[00:05:56] 2. Plato's Defense against the Harmony Analogy
[00:19:42] 3. Essential and Contingent Properties and the Argument from Essential Properties
[00:37:06] 4. Kagan: "There Is No Good Reason to Believe in Souls"
[00:47:53] 5. Qualifications and Conclusion

References
Lecture 9 - Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.)
Instructor: Professor Shelly Kagan. Resources: Figures 9.1-9.2 [PDF]. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Course Introduction
Lecture 02 - The Nature of Persons: Dualism vs. Physicalism
Lecture 03 - Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part I
Lecture 04 - Introduction to Plato's Phaedo; Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part II
Lecture 05 - Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part III: Free will and Near-death Experiences
Lecture 06 - Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part IV; Plato, Part I
Lecture 07 - Plato, Part II: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul
Lecture 08 - Plato, Part III: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.)
Lecture 09 - Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.)
Lecture 10 - Personal Identity, Part I: Identity across Apace and Time and the Soul Theory
Lecture 11 - Personal Identity, Part II: The Body Theory and the Personality Theory
Lecture 12 - Personal Identity, Part III: Objections to the Personality Theory
Lecture 13 - Personal Identity, Part IV; What Matters?
Lecture 14 - What Matters (cont.); The Nature of Death, Part I
Lecture 15 - The Nature of Death (cont.); Believing You will Die
Lecture 16 - Dying Alone; The Badness of Death, Part I
Lecture 17 - The Badness of Death, Part II: The Deprivation Account
Lecture 18 - The Badness of Death, Part III; Immortality, Part I
Lecture 19 - Immortality Part II; The Value of Life, Part I
Lecture 20 - The Value of Life, Part II; Other Bad Aspects of Death, Part I
Lecture 21 - Other Bad Aspects of Death, Part II
Lecture 22 - Fear of Death
Lecture 23 - How to Live Given the Certainty of Death
Lecture 24 - Suicide, Part I: The Rationality of Suicide
Lecture 25 - Suicide, Part II: Deciding under Uncertainty
Lecture 26 - Suicide, Part III: The Morality of Suicide and Course Conclusion