The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Introduce it by defining what a distinction between body and soul would be - that the soul can survive on its own without the body and explain that this is a contentious area in philosophy because it has a significant impact on how important we view this life to be and how we approach areas such as ethics. Explain that there are two conflicting schools of thought on the issue - materialism and dualism. Question the idea of what firm evidence would be, for example there is evidence to support dualism but materialists would believe there is another explantion for it.

In the main body of the essay you could set it out in one of two ways - either by thinker - explain a philosophy which supports dualism, e.g. Plato or Descartes and then consider it's validity by exploring the idea of an opposing thinker such as aristotle, richard dawkins or gilbert ryle. Alternatively you could set it out by theory (there are three main ones; bodily resurrection, disembodied resurrection and reincarnation), exploring each one in turn and considering whethere it provides any evidence for body/soul distinction. Obviously you would bring philosophers into the discussion. It's good to have an argument as well to avoid it being narrative. Good luck!