Transcript Plato`s dualism

LO: I will know why Richard Dawkins rejects the traditional
idea of the soul
Understanding Dawkins …
Record 3 things said
Anything to challenge
Any questions
The science of Memetics
 ‘Dawkins recalls how he wanted a word for a “cultural replicator” that
sounded like “gene” – thus stressing the analogy between cultural and
genetic transmission – and came up with “meme” – an abbreviation of the
term “mimeme,” derived from the Greek mimesis (“imitation”). The meme
was proposed as a hypothetical replicator – “a unit of cultural
transmission, or a unit of imitation” – to explain the process of the
development of culture within a Darwinian framework:
Just as genes propagate [breed & spread] themselves in the gene pool by
leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate
themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain by a process
which, in the broad sense of the term, can be called imitation.
As examples of what he has in mind, Dawkins points to such things as
tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, fashions, aspects of architecture, songs – and
God.’ McGrath, Dawkins’ God, p 122.
NB: After some criticism, Dawkins revised his definition in 1982.
Read chapter 4 of McGrath’s book for more info.
Dawkins on genes, the body
and consciousness
 Use handout.
Active reading
 Pg 92-93 of your A2 textbooks, explain the following
 Soul as a mythological concept
 Soul One and Soul Two
 Dawkins on life after death
For debate
‘I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied
with not understanding the world.’ Richard Dawkins
‘Making Sense’ clip
Plenary
… Of today’s lesson …
… and the topic so far!