Q1.

explain traditional religious view of human self and analyse how darwen theory and existential
challenge this view?

The purpose of man is to love and serve God. Humans are made in the image of God. Man has an
immaterial and immortal soul and the ability to love and to know, in the very manner of God. Augustine
emphasized that humans have will and intellect, the ability to choose between good and evil. The
purpose of man is to know God through reason.

 The Judaeo-Christian version of the TRV holds that humans are uniquely made in the
image of God. The Darwinian view suggests that if humans are made in the image of God, we
are not uniquely so. From the perspective of Darwinian evolution, it makes more sense to say we
are made in the image of the ape. Our rational abilities are similar, though not identical, to
rational abilities found in our evolutionary ancestors and cousins.
 The TRV held that humans have an inherent purpose. The Darwinian view does not make
this assumption, and tries to explain the facts of biological diversity without it. In the TRV, the
human organism and its parts came into being to serve a function. The parts of the body are to
serve the whole human life. The purpose of human life is to serve God and neighbor. The
Darwinian view does not assume that human beings have a natural purpose.
 The TRV (in its Judaeo-Christian form) refers to a conscious creator. Darwinism explains the
emergence of human beings through the chance processes of random variation and natural
selection.

Q2. Critically analyse traditional rationalist view of human self?

• For Plato, humans have a nonphysical or immaterial soul or self

• Plato contends that since reason often conflicts with our desires (or appetites) and that either
of these can conflict with our aggression, each of these comprise one of the three main
elements of our soul (self)

• Aristotle (384-322 BC) mostly agreed with Plato but went on to argue that reason can discover
the truth about man in the natural world, and how we should act.

• Thus, Aristotle is rejecting Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, suggesting that Plato’s world of shadows
can be known through reason.

• For Aristotle, all living things and the natural world have purpose (telos). The purpose of man is
to control desires and aggression through reason.