St. thomas aquinas conscience

Evaluate the claim that the soul is distinct from the body (June 2011)
There are two main theories which argue either for or against the soul being distinct from the body. The first theory is called dualism, most dualists believe that we as humans are made up of two parts, the physical body and then the soul. Compared to the other main theory which is very different to Dualism, Materialism. Materialists believe that we are just 1 aspect, which is physical and that the physical can explain everything, even the workings of the brain. The most important philosophers with a dualists view begin right back in the Greek era with Plato and forward to the middle ages with Descartes. However for materialism more modern day ideas come from Hick and Dawkins.
The most famous Dualist view is probably that of Plato, the ancient Greece philosopher who introduced the idea that the soul was immortal. Plato’s main ideas for the soul being distinct from the body relied heavily on the theory of the forms, Plato used these to say that when a humans body died, the soul would go back to the realm of then forms, thus making the soul much more important than the body for Plato. Plato also states how the body seems to be more of a hindrance than a help, “Fill’s us with love and lusts and fears, and fancies of all kinds, and endless foolery and in fact as men say, takes away from us all the power of thinking at all” obviously it is important for us to remember Plato was a very keen thinker, the philosophers were kings and therefore thinking for Plato was imperative. Plato used the rule of opposites to show that the soul must be immortal, he said that the world is full of opposites such as big and small, light and dark, and that if there is such a thing as living and we all agree there is, then there has to be an opposite, Death. Plato argued that for death to be something rather than nothing the soul must carry on after the body is dead.
However Plato’s student Aristotle, did not share this same idea on how the soul Is distinct from the body, Aristotle, (although still a dualist in his approach) argued that the soul was part of how something functioned or what its purpose was purpose. He used the example of the eye and how if this had a soul then it would be vision, and that if an axe had a soul then it would be cutting. However although Aristotle believed the soul and body to be in the same body, he is still a dualist as he believes that the mind was responsible for mental knowledge, not the soul unlike Plato.
The ideas on the Body and soul were revisited in the Middle Ages, mainly by Rene Descartes, Descartes was a dualist also Descartes introduced an idea which became widely known as Cartesian Dualism. Cartesian dualism talks of the mind as am place where all feelings, sensations and thoughts are had. Descartes also spoke of how the mind and body interact with one another “I think, therefore I am” is Descartes famous quote of realising that the mind and body are separate. However there are many criticisms regarding Descartes version of the mind and soul, the main criticism of Descartes as pointed out by Gilbert Ryle, Ryle said spoke of how there wsa no evidence for our minds to be separate from our bodies, especially after Descartes was proven wrong about how