Misplaced Pages

Soul

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Yechidah) Non-material essence of a living being Not to be confused with Seoul. For other uses, see Soul (disambiguation).

Artist's depiction of a human soul leaving the body, 1808

In many religious and philosophical traditions, the soul is the non-material essence of a person, which includes one's identity, personality, and memories, an immaterial aspect or essence of a living being that is believed to be able to survive physical death. The concept of the soul is generally applied to humans, although it can also be applied to other living or even non-living entities, as in animism.

Etymology

The Modern English noun soul is derived from Old English sāwol, sāwel. The earliest attestations reported in the Oxford English Dictionary are from the 8th century. In King Alfred's translation of De Consolatione Philosophiae, it is used to refer to the immaterial, spiritual, or thinking aspect of a person, as contrasted with the person's physical body; in the Vespasian Psalter 77.50, it means "life" or "animate existence". The Old English word is cognate with other historical Germanic terms for the same idea, including Old Frisian sēle, sēl (which could also mean "salvation", or "solemn oath"), Gothic saiwala, Old High German sēula, sēla, Old Saxon sēola, and Old Norse sāla. Present-day cognates include Dutch ziel and German Seele.

Religious views

In Judaism and in some Christian denominations, only human beings have immortal souls. Immortality is disputed within Judaism and the concept of immortality was most likely influenced by Plato. For example, Thomas Aquinas, borrowing directly from Aristotle's On the Soul, attributed "soul" (anima) to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. Other religions (most notably Hinduism and Jainism) believe that all living things from the smallest bacterium to the largest of mammals are the souls themselves (Atman and jiva) and have their physical representative (the body) in the world. The actual self is the soul, while the body is only a mechanism to experience the karma of that life. Thus, if one sees a tiger then there is a self-conscious identity residing in it (the soul), and a physical representative (the whole body of the tiger, which is observable) in the world. Many people believe that non-biological things, such as rivers and mountains, also possess souls. This belief is called animism.

Ancient Near East

Main articles: Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul and Religions of the ancient Near East
The souls of Pe and Nekhen towing the royal barge on a relief of Ramesses II's temple in Abydos

In the ancient Egyptian religion, an individual was believed to be made up of various elements, some physical and some spiritual. Similar ideas are found in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian religion. The Kuttamuwa stele, a funeral stele for an 8th-century BCE royal official from Sam'al, describes Kuttamuwa requesting that his mourners commemorate his life and his afterlife with feasts "for my soul that is in this stele". It is one of the earliest references to a soul as a separate entity from the body. The 800-pound (360 kg) basalt stele is 3 ft (0.91 m) tall and 2 ft (0.61 m) wide. It was uncovered in the third season of excavations by the Neubauer Expedition of the Oriental Institute in Chicago, Illinois.

Baháʼí Faith

The Baháʼí Faith affirms that "the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel". Bahá'u'lláh stated that the soul not only continues to live after the physical death of the human body but is in fact immortal. Heaven can be seen partly as the soul's state of nearness to God, and hell as a state of remoteness from God. Each state follows as a natural consequence of individual efforts, or the lack thereof, to develop spiritually. Bahá'u'lláh taught that individuals have no existence prior to their life here on earth and the soul's evolution is always towards God and away from the material world.

Buddhism

The traditional doctrine in Buddhism regarding the soul, self, or ego is that it is non-existent as a separate, permanent entity. The non-existence of self (anatman), the impermanence of all things (anitya), and the suffering (dukkha) experienced by living beings due to attachment to ideas of self and permanence are central concepts in almost all Buddhist schools. The doctrine of Buddha-nature, while sometimes misinterpreted as referring to a "true self" or "soul" of some kind, actually depends upon acceptance of the concept of anatman to be properly understood.

Christianity

See also: Christian mortalism, Immortality of the soul, and Soul in the Bible
Depiction of a soul being carried to heaven by two angels by William Bouguereau

According to some Christian eschatology, when people die, their souls will be judged by God and determined to go to Heaven or to Hades awaiting a resurrection. The oldest existing branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, adhere to this view, as well as many Protestant denominations. Some Protestant Christians understand the soul as life, and believe that the dead have no conscious existence until after the resurrection (this is known as Christian conditionalism). Some Protestant Christians believe that the souls and bodies of the unrighteous will be destroyed in Hell rather than suffering eternally (annihilationism). Believers will inherit eternal life either in Heaven, or in a Kingdom of God on earth, and enjoy eternal fellowship with God. Other Christians reject the punishment of the soul.

Paul the Apostle used psychē (ψυχή) and pneuma (πνεῦμα) specifically to distinguish between the Jewish notions of nephesh (נפש) and ruah (רוח), meaning spirit, (also in the Septuagint, e.g. Genesis 1:2 רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים = πνεῦμα θεοῦ = spiritus Dei = "the Spirit of God"). Christians generally believe in the existence and eternal, infinite nature of the soul.

Origin of the soul

The "origin of the soul" has provided a vexing question in Christianity. The major theories put forward include soul creationism, traducianism, and pre-existence. According to soul creationism, God creates each individual soul directly, either at the moment of conception or at some later time. According to traducianism, the soul comes from the parents by natural generation. According to the preexistence theory, the soul exists before the moment of conception. There have been differing thoughts regarding whether human embryos have souls from conception, or whether there is a point between conception and birth where the fetus acquires a soul, consciousness, and / or personhood. Stances in this question play a role in judgments on the morality of abortion.

Trichotomy of the soul

Some Christians espouse a trichotomic view of humans, which characterizes humans as consisting of a body (soma), soul (psyche), and spirit (pneuma); however, the majority of modern Bible scholars point out how the concepts of "spirit" and of "soul" are used interchangeably in many biblical passages, and so hold to dichotomy: the view that each human comprises a body and a soul. Paul said that the "body wars against" the soul, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit" (Heb 4:12 NASB), and that "I buffet my body", to keep it under control.

Tota in toto corpore

According to Thomas Aquinas, the soul is tota in toto corpore. This means that the soul is entirely contained in every single part of the human body, and therefore ubiquitous and cannot be placed in a single organ, such as heart or brain, nor it is separable from the body (except after the body's death). In the fourth book of De Trinitate, Augustine of Hippo states that the soul is all in the whole body and all in any part of it.

Views of various denominations

Roman Catholicism

The present Catechism of the Catholic Church states that " refers to the innermost aspect of , that which is of greatest value in , that by which most especially in God's image: 'soul' signifies the spiritual principle in ." All souls living and dead will be judged by Jesus Christ when he comes back to earth. The Catholic Church teaches that the existence of each individual soul is dependent wholly upon God, stating: "The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God."

Depiction of the soul on a 17th century tombstone at the cemetery of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow
Protestantism

Protestants generally believe in the soul's existence and immortality, but fall into two major camps about what this means in terms of an afterlife. Some, following John Calvin, believe that the soul persists as consciousness after death. Others, following Martin Luther, believe that the soul dies with the body, and is unconscious ("sleeps") until the resurrection of the dead.

Adventism

Various new religious movements deriving from Adventism including Christadelphians, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses, similarly believe that the dead do not possess a soul separate from the body and are unconscious until the resurrection.

Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the spirit and body together constitute the Soul of Man (Mankind), stating: "The spirit and the body are the soul of man." Latter-day Saints believe that the soul is the union of a pre-existing, God-made spirit, and a temporal body, which is formed by physical conception on earth. After death, the spirit continues to live and progress in the spirit world until the resurrection, when it is reunited with the body that once housed it. This reuniting of body and spirit results in a perfect soul that is immortal, and eternal, and capable of receiving a fulness of joy. Latter-day Saint cosmology also describes "intelligences" as the essence of consciousness or agency. These are co-eternal with God, and animate the spirits. The union of a newly-created spirit body with an eternally-existing intelligence constitutes a "spirit birth", and justifies God's title "Father of our spirits".

Confucianism

Main article: Hun and po See also: Soul dualism

Some Confucian traditions contrast a spiritual soul with a corporeal soul.

Hinduism

Main articles: Ātman (Hinduism) and Jiva

Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means inner self or soul. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, ātman is the first principle, the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation (moksha), a human being must acquire self-knowledge (atma jnana), which is to realize that one's true self (ātman) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman according to Advaita Vedanta. The six orthodox schools of Hinduism believe that there is ātman (self, essence) in every being.

In Hinduism and Jainism, a jiva (Sanskrit: जीव, jīva, alternative spelling jiwa; Hindi: जीव, jīv, alternative spelling jeev) is a living being, or any entity imbued with a life force. The concept of jiva in Jainism is similar to ātman in Hinduism; however, some Hindu traditions differentiate between the two concepts, with jiva considered as individual self, while atman as that which is universal unchanging self that is present in all living beings and everything else as the metaphysical Brahman. The latter is sometimes referred to as jiva-ātman (a soul in a living body).

Islam

Main articles: Nafs and Rūḥ

The Quran, the holy book of Islam, uses two words to refer to the soul: rūḥ (translated as spirit, consciousness, pneuma, or soul) and nafs (translated as self, ego, psyche, or soul), cognates of the Hebrew ruach and nefesh. The two terms are frequently used interchangeably, although rūḥ is more often used to denote the divine spirit or "the breath of life", while nafs designates one's disposition or characteristics. In Islamic philosophy, the immortal rūḥ "drives" the mortal nafs, which comprises temporal desires and perceptions necessary for living.

Several verses of the Quran that mention the rûh occur in chapters 17 ("The Night Journey") and 39 ("The Troops").

And they ask you, , about the Rûh. Say, "The Rûh is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind has not been given of knowledge except a little.

— Quran 17:85

And remember your Rabb inside your-self

— Quran 7:205

Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought..

— Quran 39:42

Jainism

Main articles: Jīva (Jainism) and Vitalism (Jainism) Further information: Jain philosophy and Jainism and non-creationism

In Jainism, every living being, from plant or bacterium to human, has a soul and the concept forms the very basis of Jainism. According to Jainism, there is no beginning or end to the existence of soul. It is eternal in nature and changes its form until it attains liberation. In Jainism, jiva is the immortal essence or soul of a living organism, such as human, animal, fish, or plant, which survives physical death. The concept of Ajiva in Jainism means "not soul", and represents matter (including body), time, space, non-motion and motion. In Jainism, a Jiva is either samsari (mundane, caught in cycle of rebirths) or mukta (liberated).

According to this belief until the time the soul is liberated from the saṃsāra (cycle of repeated birth and death), it gets attached to one of these bodies based on the karma (actions) of the individual soul. Irrespective of which state the soul is in, it has got the same attributes and qualities. The difference between the liberated and non-liberated souls is that the qualities and attributes are manifested completely in case of siddha (liberated soul) as they have overcome all the karmic bondages whereas in case of non-liberated souls they are partially exhibited. Souls who rise victorious over wicked emotions while still remaining within physical bodies are referred to as arihants.

Concerning the Jain view of the soul, Virchand Gandhi said that "the soul lives its own life, not for the purpose of the body, but the body lives for the purpose of the soul. If we believe that the soul is to be controlled by the body then soul misses its power."

Judaism

This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
Find sources: "soul" in Judaism – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Hebrew terms נפש‎ nefesh (literally "living being"), רוח‎ ruach (literally "wind"), נשמה‎ neshamah (literally "breath"), חיה‎ chayah (literally "life") and יחידה‎ yechidah (literally "singularity") are used to describe the soul or spirit. In Judaism, there was originally little to no concept of a soul. As seen in the Genesis, the divine breath simply animated bodies.

Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being.

—Genesis 2:7

Judaism relates the quality of one's soul to one's performance of the commandments (mitzvot) and reaching higher levels of understanding, and thus closeness to God. A person with such closeness is called a tzadik. Therefore, Judaism embraces the commemoration of the day of one's death, nahala/Yahrtzeit, and not the birthday, as a festivity of remembrance, for only toward the end of life's struggles, tests and challenges could human souls be judged and credited for righteousness. Judaism places great importance on the study of the souls.

Kabbalah and other mystic traditions go into greater detail into the nature of the soul. Kabbalah separates the soul into five elements, corresponding to the five worlds:

  1. Nefesh, related to natural instinct.
  2. Ruach, related to emotion.
  3. Neshamah, related to intellect.
  4. Chayah, which gazes at the transcendence of God.
  5. Yechidah, essence of the soul, which is bound to God.

Kabbalah proposed a concept of reincarnation, the gilgul (nefesh habehamit – the "animal soul"). Some Jewish traditions assert that the soul is housed in the luz bone, though traditions disagree as to whether it is the atlas at the top of the spine, or the sacrum at bottom of the spine.

Scientology

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Main article: Thetan

The Scientology view is that a person does not have a soul, it is a soul. It is the belief of the religion that they do not have the power to force adherents' conclusions. Therefore, a person is immortal, and may be reincarnated if they wish. Scientologists view that one's future happiness and immortality, as guided by their spirituality, is influenced by how they live and act during their time on earth. Scientology's term for the soul is "thetan", derived from the Greek word theta, symbolizing thought. Scientologists practice a form of counselling (called auditing) which aims to address the soul to improve abilities, both worldly and spiritual.

Shamanism

See also: Soul dualism
The Neolithic Manunggul burial jar from the Tabon Caves, Palawan, Philippines, depicts a soul and a psychopomp journeying to the spirit world in a boat (c. 890–710 BCE).

Soul dualism, also called "multiple souls" or "dualistic pluralism", is a common belief in Shamanism, and is essential in the universal and central concept of "soul flight" (also called "soul journey", "out-of-body experience", "ecstasy", or "astral projection"). It is the belief that humans have two or more souls, generally termed the "body soul", or "life soul", and the "free soul". The former is linked to bodily functions and awareness when awake, while the latter can freely wander during sleep or trance states. In some cases, there are a plethora of soul types with different functions. Soul dualism and multiple souls are prominent in the traditional animistic beliefs of the Austronesian peoples, the Chinese people (hún and pò), the Tibetan people, most African peoples, most Native North Americans, ancient South Asian peoples, Northern Eurasian peoples, and in Ancient Egyptians (the ka and ba).

The belief in soul dualism is found throughout most Austronesian shamanistic traditions. The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian word for the "body soul" is *nawa ("breath", "life", or "vital spirit"). It is located somewhere in the abdominal cavity, often in the liver or the heart (Proto-Austronesian *qaCay). The "free soul" is located in the head. Its names are usually derived from Proto-Austronesian *qaNiCu ("ghost", "spirit "), which also apply to other non-human nature spirits. The "free soul" is also referred to in names that literally mean "twin" or "double", from Proto-Austronesian *duSa ("two"). A virtuous person is said to be one whose souls are in harmony with each other, while an evil person is one whose souls are in conflict.

The "free soul" is said to leave the body and journey to the spirit world during sleep, trance-like states, delirium, insanity, and death. The duality is also seen in the healing traditions of Austronesian shamans, where illnesses are regarded as a "soul loss" and thus to heal the sick, one must "return" the "free soul" (which may have been stolen by an evil spirit or got lost in the spirit world) into the body. If the "free soul" can not be returned, the afflicted person dies or goes permanently insane.

The shaman heals within the spiritual dimension by returning 'lost' parts of the human soul from wherever they have gone. The shaman also cleanses excess negative energies, which confuse or pollute the soul. In some ethnic groups, there can also be more than two souls. Like among the Tagbanwa people, where a person is said to have six souls – the "free soul" (which is regarded as the "true" soul) and five secondary souls with various functions. Several Inuit groups believe that a person has more than one type of soul. One is associated with respiration, the other can accompany the body as a shadow. In some cases, it is connected to shamanistic beliefs among the various Inuit groups. Caribou Inuit groups also believed in several types of souls.

Shinto

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2021)

Shinto distinguishes between the souls of living persons (tamashii) and those of dead persons (mitama), each of which may have different aspects or sub-souls.

Sikhism

Sikhism considers soul (atma) to be part of God (Waheguru). Various hymns are cited from the holy book Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) that suggests this belief. "God is in the Soul and the Soul is in the God." The same concept is repeated at various pages of the SGGS. Example include that "The soul is divine; divine is the soul. Worship Him with love", and "The soul is the Lord, and the Lord is the soul; contemplating the Shabad, the Lord is found."

The atma or soul according to Sikhism is an entity or "spiritual spark" or "light" in the human body - because of which the body can sustain life. On the departure of this entity from the body, the body becomes lifeless – no amount of manipulations to the body can make the person make any physical actions. The soul is the "driver" in the body. It is the roohu or spirit or atma, the presence of which makes the physical body alive.

Many religious and philosophical traditions support the view that the soul is the ethereal substance – a spirit; a non-material spark – particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being. The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly even within a given religion as to what happens to the soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it possibly material.

Taoism

According to Chinese traditions, every person has two types of soul called hun and po (Chinese: 魂and 魄; pinyin: Hún and Pò), which are respectively yang and yin. Taoism believes in Ten souls, Sanhunqipo (Chinese: 三魂七魄; pinyin: Sān hún qī pò) (三魂七魄) "three hun and seven po". A living being that loses any of them is said to have mental illness or unconsciousness, while a dead soul may reincarnate to a disability, lower desire realms, or may even be unable to reincarnate.

Zoroastrianism

Main article: Zoroastrianism

Other religious beliefs and views

Charon (Greek) who guides dead souls to the Underworld. 4th century BCE.

In theological reference to the soul, the terms "life" and "death" are viewed as emphatically more definitive than the common concepts of "biological life" and "biological death". Because the soul is said to be transcendent of the material existence, and is said to have (potentially) eternal life, the death of the soul is likewise said to be an eternal death. Thus, in the concept of divine judgment, God is commonly said to have options with regard to the dispensation of souls, ranging from Heaven (i.e., angels) to hell (i.e., demons), with various concepts in between. Typically both Heaven and hell are said to be eternal, or at least far beyond a typical human concept of lifespan and time. According to Louis Ginzberg, the soul of Adam is the image of God. Every soul of human also escapes from the body every night, rises up to heaven, and fetches new life thence for the body of man.

Spirituality, New Age, and new religions

Brahma Kumaris

In Brahma Kumaris, human souls are believed to be incorporeal and eternal. God is considered to be the Supreme Soul, with maximum degrees of spiritual qualities, such as peace, love and purity.

Theosophy

In Helena Blavatsky's Theosophy, the soul is the field of our psychological activity (thinking, emotions, memory, desires, will, and so on) as well as of the paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as extrasensory perception or out-of-body experiences; however, the soul is not the highest, but a middle dimension of human beings. Higher than the soul is the spirit, which is considered to be the real self; the source of everything is called good—happiness, wisdom, love, compassion, harmony, peace, and so on. While the spirit is eternal and incorruptible, the soul is not. The soul acts as a link between the material body and the spiritual self, and therefore shares some characteristics of both. The soul can be attracted either towards the spiritual or towards the material realm, being thus the battlefield of good and evil. It is only when the soul is attracted towards the spiritual and merges with the Self that it becomes eternal and divine.

Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner claimed classical trichotomic stages of soul development, which interpenetrated one another in consciousness:

  • The "sentient soul", centering on sensations, drives, and passions, with strong conative (will) and emotional components;
  • The "intellectual" or "mind soul", internalizing and reflecting on outer experience, with strong affective (feeling) and cognitive (thinking) components; and
  • The "consciousness soul", in search of universal, objective truths.

Miscellaneous

In Surat Shabda Yoga, the soul is considered to be an exact replica and spark of the Divine. The purpose of Surat Shabd Yoga is to realize one's True Self as soul (Self-Realisation), True Essence (Spirit-Realisation) and True Divinity (God-Realisation) while living in the physical body. Similarly, the spiritual teacher Meher Baba held that "Atman, or the soul, is in reality identical with Paramatma the Oversoul – which is one, infinite, and eternal ... he sole purpose of creation is for the soul to enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul consciously." Eckankar, founded by Paul Twitchell in 1965, defines Soul as the true self; the inner, most sacred part of each person. George Gurdjieff taught that humans are not born with immortal souls but could develop them through certain efforts.

Philosophical views

Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, understood that the soul (ψυχή, psykhḗ) must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teachings as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence (Apology 30a–b). Aristotle reasoned that a man's body and soul were his matter and form respectively: the body is a collection of elements and the soul is the essence. Soul or psyche (Ancient Greek: ψυχή psykhḗ, of ψύχειν psýkhein, "to breathe", cf. Latin anima) comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, free will, feeling, consciousness, qualia, memory, perception, thinking, and so on. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal.

The ancient Greeks used the term "ensouled" to represent the concept of being alive, indicating that the earliest surviving Western philosophical view believed that the soul was that which gave the body life. The soul was considered the incorporeal or spiritual "breath" that animates (from the Latin anima, cf. "animal") the living organism. Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar by saying that the soul sleeps while the limbs are active, but when one is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals "an award of joy or sorrow drawing near" in dreams. Erwin Rohde writes that an early pre-Pythagorean belief presented the soul as lifeless when it departed the body, and that it retired into Hades with no hope of returning to a body. Plato was the first thinker in antiquity to combine the various functions of the soul into one coherent conception: the soul is that which moves things (i.e., that which gives life, on the view that life is self-motion) by means of its thoughts, requiring that it be both a mover and a thinker.

Socrates and Plato

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael
Main article: Plato's tripartite theory of soul

Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how humans behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn (metempsychosis) in subsequent bodies; however, Aristotle believed that only one part of the soul was immortal, namely the intellect (logos). The Platonic soul consists of three parts:

  1. The logos, or logistikon (mind, nous, or reason).
  2. The thymos, or thumetikon (emotion, spiritedness, or masculine).
  3. The eros, or epithumetikon (appetitive, desire, or feminine).

The parts are located in different regions of the body:

  1. Logos is located in the head, is related to reason and regulates the other part.
  2. Thymos is located near the chest region and is related to anger.
  3. Eros is located in the stomach and is related to one's desires.

Plato compares the three parts of the soul or psyche to a societal caste system. According to Plato's theory, the three-part soul is essentially the same thing as a state's class system because, to function well, each part must contribute so that the whole functions well. Logos keeps the other functions of the soul regulated.

The soul is at the heart of Plato's philosophy. Francis Cornford described the twin pillars of Platonism as being the theory of forms on the one hand, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul on the other. Plato was the first person in the history of philosophy to believe that the soul was both the source of life and the mind. In Plato's dialogues, the soul plays many disparate roles. Among other things, Plato believes that the soul is what gives life to the body (which was articulated most of all in the Laws and Phaedrus) in terms of self-motion: to be alive is to be capable of moving yourself, and the soul is a self-mover. He also thinks that the soul is the bearer of moral properties (i.e., when one is virtuous, it is their soul that is virtuous as opposed to, say, their body). The soul is also the mind: it is that which thinks in them. This casual oscillation between different roles of the soul in observed many dialogues, including in the Republic.

Is there any function of the soul that you could not accomplish with anything else, such as taking care of something (epimeleisthai), ruling, and deliberating, and other such things? Could we correctly assign these things to anything besides the soul, and say that they are characteristic (idia) of it?

No, to nothing else.

What about living? Will we deny that this is a function of the soul?

That absolutely is.

The Phaedo most famously caused problems to scholars who were trying to make sense of this aspect of Plato's theory of the soul, such as Dorothea Frede and Sarah Broadie. 2020s scholarship overturned this accusation by arguing that part of the novelty of Plato's theory of the soul is that it was the first to unite the different features and powers of the soul that became commonplace in later ancient and medieval philosophy. For Plato, the soul moves things by means of its thoughts, as one scholar puts it, and accordingly the soul is both a mover (i.e., the principle of life, where life is conceived of as self-motion) and a thinker.

Aristotle

The structure of the souls of plants, animals, and humans, according to Aristotle, with Bios, Zoê, and Psūchê
Further information: Aristotle's biology

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) defined the soul, or Psūchê (ψυχή), as the "first actuality" of a naturally organized body, and argued against its separate existence from the physical body. In Aristotle's view, the primary activity, or full actualization, of a living thing constitutes its soul. For example, the full actualization of an eye, as an independent organism, is to see (its purpose or final cause). Another example is that the full actualization of a human being would be living a fully functional human life in accordance with reason (which he considered to be a faculty unique to humanity). For Aristotle, the soul is the organization of the form and matter of a natural being which allows it to strive for its full actualization. This organization between form and matter is necessary for any activity, or functionality, to be possible in a natural being. Using an artifact (non-natural being) as an example, a house is a building for human habituation but for a house to be actualized requires the material, such as wood, nails, or bricks necessary for its actuality (i.e., being a fully functional house); however, this does not imply that a house has a soul. In regards to artifacts, the source of motion that is required for their full actualization is outside of themselves (for example, a builder builds a house). In natural beings, this source of motion is contained within the being itself.

Aristotle addressed the faculties of the soul. The various faculties of the soul, such as nutrition, movement (peculiar to animals), reason (peculiar to humans), sensation (special, common, and incidental), and so forth, when exercised, constitute the "second actuality", or fulfillment, of the capacity to be alive. For example, someone who falls asleep, as opposed to someone who falls dead, can wake up and live their life, while the latter can no longer do so. Aristotle identified three hierarchical levels of natural beings: plants, animals, and people, having three different degrees of soul: Bios (life), Zoë (animate life), and Psuchë (self-conscious life). For these groups, he identified three corresponding levels of soul, or biological activity: the nutritive activity of growth, sustenance and reproduction which all life shares (Bios); the self-willed motive activity and sensory faculties, which only animals and people have in common (Zoë); and finally "reason", of which humans alone are capable (Pseuchë). Aristotle's discussion of the soul is in his work, De Anima (On the Soul). Although mostly seen as opposing Plato in regard to the immortality of the soul, a controversy can be found in relation to the fifth chapter of the third book: in this text both interpretations can be argued for, soul as a whole can be deemed mortal, and a part called "active intellect" or "active mind" is immortal and eternal. Advocates exist for both sides of the controversy; it is argued that there will be permanent disagreement about its final conclusions, as no other Aristotelian text contains this specific point, and this part of De Anima is obscure. Furthermore, Aristotle states that the soul helps humans find the truth, and understanding the true purpose or role of the soul is extremely difficult.

Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis

Following Aristotle, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Ibn al-Nafis, an Arab physician, further elaborated upon the Aristotelian understanding of the soul and developed their own theories on the soul. They both made a distinction between the soul and the spirit, and the Avicennian doctrine on the nature of the soul was influential among the Scholastics. Some of Avicenna's views on the soul include the idea that the immortality of the soul is a consequence of its nature, and not a purpose for it to fulfill. In his theory of "The Ten Intellects", he viewed the human soul as the tenth and final intellect.

While he was imprisoned, Avicenna wrote his famous "Floating man" thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantial nature of the soul. He told his readers to imagine themselves suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argues that in this scenario one would still have self-consciousness. He thus concludes that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms but as a primary given, a substance. This argument was later refined and simplified by René Descartes in epistemic terms, when he stated: "I can abstract from the supposition of all external things, but not from the supposition of my own consciousness."

Avicenna generally supported Aristotle's idea of the soul originating from the heart, whereas Ibn al-Nafis rejected this idea and instead argued that the soul "is related to the entirety and not to one or a few organs". He further criticized Aristotle's idea whereby every unique soul requires the existence of a unique source, in this case the heart. Al-Nafis concluded that "the soul is related primarily neither to the spirit nor to any organ, but rather to the entire matter whose temperament is prepared to receive that soul," and he defined the soul as nothing other than "what a human indicates by saying "I".

Thomas Aquinas

Following Aristotle (whom he referred to as "the Philosopher") and Avicenna, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) understood the soul to be the first actuality of the living body. Consequent to this, he distinguished three orders of life: plants, which feed and grow; animals, which add sensation to the operations of plants; and humans, which add intellect to the operations of animals. Concerning the human soul, his epistemological theory required that, since the knower becomes what he knows, the soul is definitely not corporeal – if it is corporeal when it knows what some corporeal thing is, that thing would come to be within it. Therefore, the soul has an operation which does not rely on a body organ, and therefore the soul can exist without a body. Furthermore, since the rational soul of human beings is a subsistent form and not something made of matter and form, it cannot be destroyed in any natural process.

The full argument for the immortality of the soul and Aquinas' elaboration of Aristotelian theory is found in the Summa Theologica. Aquinas affirmed in the doctrine of the divine effusion of the soul, the particular judgement of the soul after the separation from a dead body, and the final resurrection of the flesh. He recalled two canons of the 4th century, for which "the rational soul is not engendered by coition", and "is one and the same soul in man, that both gives life to the body by being united to it, and orders itself by its own reasoning." Moreover, he believed in a unique and tripartite soul, within which are distinctively present a nutritive, a sensitive, and intellectual soul. The latter is created by God and is taken solely by human beings, includes the other two types of soul and makes the sensitive soul incorruptible.

Immanuel Kant

In his discussions of rational psychology, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) identified the soul as the "I" in the strictest sense, and argued that the existence of inner experience can neither be proved nor disproved. He said: "We cannot prove a priori the immateriality of the soul, but rather only so much: that all properties and actions of the soul cannot be recognized from materiality." It is from the "I", or soul, that Kant proposes transcendental rationalization but cautions that such rationalization can only determine the limits of knowledge if it is to remain practical.

Philosophy of mind

Main article: Philosophy of mind

Gilbert Ryle's ghost in the machine argument, which is a rejection of Descartes's mind–body dualism, can provide a contemporary understanding of the soul/mind, and the problem concerning its connection to the brain/body.

Psychology

Soul belief prominently figures in Otto Rank's work recovering the importance of immortality in the psychology of primitive, classical and modern interest in life and death. Rank's work directly opposed the scientific psychology that concedes the possibility of the soul's existence and postulates it as an object of research without really admitting that it exists. He says: "Just as religion represents a psychological commentary on the social evolution of man, various psychologies represent our current attitudes toward spiritual belief. In the animistic era, psychologizing was a creating of the soul; in the religious era, it was a representing of the soul to one's self; in our era of natural science it is a knowing of the individual soul." Rank's "Seelenglaube" translates to "Soul Belief". Rank's work had a significant influence on Ernest Becker's understanding of a universal interest in immortality. In The Denial of Death, Becker describes "soul" in terms of Søren Kierkegaard use of "self" when he says that "what we call schizophrenia is an attempt by the symbolic self to deny the limitations of the finite body."

† Kierkegaard's use of "self" may be a bit confusing. He uses it to include
the symbolic self and the physical body. It is a synonym really for "total
personality" that goes beyond the person to include what we would now call
the "soul" or the "ground of being" out of which the created person sprang.

Science

The search for the soul is seen to have been instrumental in driving the understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the human body, particularly in the fields of cardiovascular and neurology. In the two dominant conflicting concepts of the soul – one seeing it to be spiritual and immortal, and the other seeing it to be material and mortal, both have described the soul as being located in a particular organ or as pervading the whole body.

Neuroscience

As an interdisciplinary field and its branch of cognitive neuroscience particularly, neuroscience operates under the ontological assumption of physicalism. In other words, it assumes that only the fundamental phenomena studied by physics exist. Thus, neuroscience seeks to understand mental phenomena within the framework according to which human thought and behavior are caused solely by physical processes taking place inside the brain, and it operates by the way of reductionism by seeking an explanation for the mind in terms of brain activity.

To study the mind in terms of the brain, several methods of functional neuroimaging are used to study the neuroanatomical correlates of various cognitive processes that constitute the mind. The evidence from brain-imaging indicates that all processes of the mind have physical correlates in brain function; however, such correlational studies cannot determine whether neural activity plays a causal role in the occurrence of these cognitive processes (correlation does not imply causation) and they cannot determine if the neural activity is either necessary or sufficient for such processes to occur. Identification of causation, and of necessary and sufficient conditions, requires explicit experimental manipulation of that activity. If manipulation of brain activity changes consciousness, then a causal role for that brain activity can be inferred.

Two of the most common types of manipulation experiments are loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments. In a loss-of-function (also called "necessity") experiment, a part of the nervous system is diminished or removed in an attempt to determine if it is necessary for a certain process to occur, and in a gain-of-function (also called "sufficiency") experiment, an aspect of the nervous system is increased relative to normal. Manipulations of brain activity can be performed with direct electrical brain stimulation, magnetic brain stimulation using transcranial magnetic stimulation, psychopharmacological manipulation, optogenetic manipulation, and by studying the symptoms of brain damage (case studies) and lesions. In addition, neuroscientists are also investigating how the mind develops with the development of the brain.

Near-death experience

Neuroscience research hypothesizes that a near-death experience (NDE) is a subjective phenomenon resulting from "disturbed bodily multisensory integration" that occurs during life-threatening events. Some researchers of near-death experiences consider such a phenomenon as a challenge to the materialist assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain. Sam Parnia and others have suggested that a mind that is mediated by, but not produced by, the brain is a possible way to explain NDE.

Physics

Physicist Sean M. Carroll has written that the idea of a soul is incompatible with quantum field theory (QFT). He writes that, for a soul to exist,

"ot only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics: Within QFT, there can't be a new collection of 'spirit particles' and 'spirit forces' that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments."

Quantum indeterminism has been invoked as an explanatory mechanism for possible soul / brain interaction. Neuroscientist Peter Clarke found errors with this viewpoint, observing there is no evidence that such processes play a role in brain function; Clarke concluded that a Cartesian soul has no basis from quantum physics.

Parapsychology

Some parapsychologists attempted to establish, by scientific experiment, whether a soul separate from the brain exists, as is more commonly defined in religion rather than as a synonym of psyche or mind. Milbourne Christopher (1979) and Mary Roach (2010) have argued that none of the attempts by parapsychologists have yet succeeded.

Weight of the soul

In 1901, Duncan MacDougall conducted an experiment ("21 grams experiment") in which he made weight-measurements of patients as they died. He claimed that there was weight-loss of varying amounts at the time of death; he concluded the soul weighed 21 grams based on measurements of a single patient, discarding conflicting results. The physicist Robert L. Park wrote that MacDougall's experiments "are not regarded today as having any scientific merit", and the psychologist Bruce Hood wrote that "because the weight loss was not reliable or replicable, his findings were unscientific."

See also

Footnotes

  1. In a mountainous kingdom in what is now southeastern Turkey, there lived in the 8th century BCE a royal official, Kuttamuwa, who oversaw the completion of an inscribed stone monument, or stele, to be erected upon his death. The words instructed mourners to commemorate his life and afterlife with feasts "for my soul that is in this stele".
  2. In St. Paul we find a more technical phraseology employed with great consistency. Psyche is now appropriated to the purely natural life; pneuma to the life of supernatural religion, the principle of which is the Holy Spirit, dwelling and operating in the heart. The opposition of flesh and spirit is accentuated afresh (Romans 1:18, etc.). This Pauline system, presented to a world already prepossessed in favour of a quasi-Platonic Dualism, occasioned one of the earliest widespread forms of error among Christian writers – the doctrine of the Trichotomy. According to this, man, perfect man (teleios) consists of three parts: body, soul and spirit (soma, psyche, pneuma).
  3. Confucius combines qi with the divine and the essential, and the corporeal soul with ghosts, opposes the two (as yang against yin, spiritual soul against corporal soul) and explains that after death the first will rise up, and the second will return to the earth, while the flesh and bones will disintegrate.
  4. ātman: 1. real self of the individual; 2. a person's soul"
  5. "Advaita and Nirguni movements, on the other hand, stress an interior mysticism in which the devotee seeks to discover the identity of individual soul (ātman) with the universal ground of being (brahman) or to find god within himself." — Lorenzen (2004)
  6. "Even though Buddhism explicitly rejected the Hindu ideas of ātman ("soul") and brahman, Hinduism treats Sakyamuni Buddha as one of the ten avatars of Vishnu." — Meister (2010)
  7. "Ātman as the innermost essence or soul of man, and brahman as the innermost essence and support of the universe. (...) Thus we can see in the Upanishads, a tendency towards a convergence of microcosm and macrocosm, culminating in the equating of ātman with brahman". — King (1995)
  8. "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence." — Shankara (1908)
  9. God had fashioned his (Adam's) soul with particular care. She is the image of God, and as God fills the world, so the soul fills the human body; as God sees all things, and is seen by none, so the soul sees, but cannot be seen; as God guides the world, so the soul guides the body; as God in His holiness is pure, so is the soul; and as God dwells in secret, so doth the soul. — Ginzberg (1909a), Ginzberg (1909b)
  10.       Full citation of the canon
    Nor do we say that there are two souls in one man, as James and other Syrians write; one, animal, by which the body is animated, and which is mingled with the blood; the other, spiritual, which obeys the reason; but we say that it is one and the same soul in man, that both gives life to the body by being united to it, and orders itself by its own reasoning. — Gennadius harvp error: no target: CITEREFGennadius (help) via Aquinas (1920b)
  11. Immanuel Kant proposed the existence of certain mathematical truths (e.g. 2 + 2 = 4 ) that are not tied to matter, nor soul.
  12. "These people were having these experiences when we wouldn't expect them to happen, when the brain shouldn't be able to sustain lucid processes, or allow them to form memories that would last. So it might hold an answer to the question of whether mind or consciousness is actually produced by the brain or whether the brain is a kind of intermediary for the mind, which exists independently. ..."
    "I started off as a sceptic but, having weighed up all the evidence, I now think that there is something going on. Essentially, it comes back to the question of whether the mind or consciousness is produced from the brain. If we can prove that the mind is produced by the brain, I don't think there is anything after we die because essentially we are conscious beings. If, on the contrary, the brain is like an intermediary which manifests the mind – like a television will act as an intermediary to manifest waves in the air into a picture or a sound – we can show that the mind is still there after the brain is dead. And that is what I think these near-death experiences indicate." — Petre (2000)
  13. "Quantum indeterminism is frequently invoked as a solution to the problem of how a disembodied soul might interact with the brain (as Descartes proposed), and is sometimes invoked in theories of libertarian free will even when they do not involve dualistic assumptions." ...
    "I conclude that Heisenbergian uncertainty is too small to affect synaptic function, and that amplification by chaos or by other means does not provide a solution to this problem. Furthermore, even if Heisenbergian effects did modify brain functioning, the changes would be swamped by those due to thermal noise." — Clarke (2013)

References

  1. "soul". Britannica. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  2. "soul, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Immortality of the Soul". jewishencyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  4. Peter Eardley and Carl Still, Aquinas: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum, 2010), pp. 34–35
  5. "Soul", The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001–07. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
  6. "Found: An ancient monument to the soul". The New York Times. 17 November 2008. Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  7. Bahá'u'lláh (1976). Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Wilmette, Illinois: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. pp. 158–63. ISBN 978-0-87743-187-9. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  8. Bahá'u'lláh (1976). Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Wilmette, Illinois: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. pp. 155–58. ISBN 978-0-87743-187-9. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  9. ^ Taherzadeh, Adib (1976). The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 1. Oxford: George Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-270-8. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  10. Shih, Heng-Ching. "The Significance Of 'Tathagatagarbha'- A Positive Expression Of 'Sunyata'". Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  11. "Life after death – heaven, hell, and purgatory". Salvation in Christianity. BBC Bitesize Guides. GCSE Religious Studies Revision - OCR.
  12. Αρχιμ. Βλάχος, Ιερόθεος (30 September 1985). "Κεφάλαιο Γ'" (PDF). Ορθόδοξη Ψυχοθεραπεία (in Greek). Εδεσσα: Ιερά Μονή Τιμίου Σταυρού. p. Τι είναι η ψυχή. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  13. Harari, Yuval N. (2017). Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow (1st US ed.). New York: Harper. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-06-246431-6. OCLC 951507538.
  14. Pacholczyk, Tadeusz, Father, PhD. "Do embryos have souls?". Catholic Education Resource Center. Catholiceducation.org. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. Syed, Matthew (12 May 2008). "Embryos have souls? What nonsense". The Times. London, UK. Archived from the original on 18 September 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  16. Jones, David Albert (2005). The Soul of the Embryo: An enquiry into the status of the human embryo in the Christian tradition. Continuum Press. ISBN 978-0-8264-6296-1.
  17. "Soul". newadvent.org. 1 July 1912. Archived from the original on 28 November 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  18. Aquinas, Thomas. "Quaestio decima: Vtrum anima sit in toto corpore et in qualibet parte eius?". Quaestiones Disputatae de Anima [Contested Issues Regarding the Soul] (in Latin). §10.
  19. Aquinas, Thomas (1274). Summa Theologiae [All of Theology] (in Latin). I-I quaestio 76.
    See also
    Klein, C. (1655). An anima sit tota in toto corpore, et tota in qualibet parte, disquisitio philosophica (in Latin). Goetschius. OCLC 253546381.
  20. Pepe, Giovanni (19 November 2023). "Recenti Studii Su la Metafisica dell'anima". Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica. 11 (2): 167–194. JSTOR 43065579.
  21. Aquinas, Thomas. "quaestio 10". Quaestiones Disputatae de Anima [Contested Issues Regarding the Soul] (in Latin). Augustinus dixit, in VI De Trinitate, quod anima est tota in toto corpore, et tota in qualibet parte eius.
  22. "paragraph 363". Catechism of the Catholic Church. Retrieved 1 March 2023 – via Vatican.va.
  23. "paragraph 382". Catechism of the Catholic Church. Archived from the original on 16 November 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011 – via Vatican.va.
  24. Helm, Paul (2006). John Calvin's Ideas. p. 129. The immortality of the soul: As we saw when discussing Calvin's Christology, Calvin is a substance dualist.
  25. Grafton, Anthony; Most, Glenn W.; Settis, Salvatore (2010). The Classical Tradition. p. 480. On several occasions, Luther mentioned contemptuously that the Council Fathers had decreed the soul immortal.
  26. Marius, Richard (1999). Martin Luther: The Christian between God and death. p. 429. Luther, believing in soul sleep at death, held here that in the moment of resurrection ... the righteous will rise to meet Christ in the air, the ungodly will remain on earth for judgment, ...
  27. "Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith". Archived from the original on 16 February 2014.
  28. "Soul Sleep | Adventist Review". adventistreview.org. 3 September 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  29. beckettj. "What Is Your Soul, According to the Bible?". Adventist.org. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  30. "Do you have an immortal soul?". The Watchtower. 15 July 2007. p. 3. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014.
  31. What Does the Bible Really Teach?. p. 211.
  32. "88:15". Doctrine and Covenants. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – via Google Books. And the spirit and the body is the soul of man.
  33. "6:51". Moses. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 23 February 2016 – via churchofjesuschrist.org.
  34. "12:9". Hebrews. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 23 February 2016 – via churchofjesuschrist.org.
  35. "131:7–8". Doctrine and Covenants. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – via churchofjesuschrist.org. Joseph Smith goes so far as to say that these spirits are made of a finer matter that we cannot see in our current state
  36. "Alma". Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 5:15; 11:43–45; 40:23; 41:2.
  37. "93:33–34". Doctrine and Covenants – via churchofjesuschrist.org.
  38. "93:29–30". Doctrine and Covenants. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – via churchofjesuschrist.org.
  39. "Chapter 37: Joseph F. Smith". Teachings of Presidents of the Church. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2011. pp. 331–338.
  40. "Spirit". Guide to the Scriptures. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 7 April 2014 – via churchofjesuschrist.org.
  41. "Chapter 41: The Postmortal Spirit World". Gospel Principles. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 23 February 2016 – via churchofjesuschrist.org.
  42. Boot, W.J. (2014). "3: Spirits, gods, and heaven in Confucian thought". In Huang, Chun-chieh; Tucker, John Allen (eds.). Dao Companion to Japanese Confucian Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy. Vol. 5. Dordrecht, NL: Springer. p. 83. ISBN 9789048129218. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  43. "ātman". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. 2012. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015.
  44. Bowker, John, ed. (2000). "ātman". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280094-7.
  45. Johnson, W.J., ed. (2009). "ātman (self)". A Dictionary of Hinduism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861025-0.
  46. ^ Lorenzen, D. (2004). Mittal, Sushil; Thursby, Gene (eds.). The Hindu World. Routledge. pp. 208–209. ISBN 0-415-21527-7.
  47. Meister, Chad (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity. Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-534013-6.
  48. Deussen, Paul; Geden, A.S. (June 2010). The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Cosimo Classics. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-61640-240-2.
  49. King, Richard (1995). Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism. State University of New York Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7914-2513-8.
  50. Jayatilleke, K.N. (2010). Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. pp. 246–249, from note 85 onwards. ISBN 978-81-208-0619-1.
  51. Collins, Steven (1994). Reynolds, Frank; Tracy, David (eds.). Religion and Practical Reason. State University of New York Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7914-2217-5.
  52. ^ Shankara, Acharya (1908). "Introduction". Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad and the Commentary of Sankara Acharya on its First Chapter. Translated by Roer, Edward. Society for the Resuscitation of Indian Literature. p. 2 (quote), pp. 2–4 – via Google books.
  53. Javanaud, Katie (July–August 2013). "Is the Buddhist 'no-self' doctrine compatible with pursuing nirvana?". Philosophy Now. No. 97. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via philosophynow.org.
  54. Hall, Matthew (2011). Plants as Persons: A philosophical botany. State University of New York Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4384-3430-8.
  55. ^ Varenne, Jean (1989). Yoga and the Hindu Tradition. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 45–47. ISBN 978-81-208-0543-9.
  56. Myers, Michael (2013). Brahman: A comparative theology. Routledge. pp. 140–143. ISBN 978-1-136-83565-0.
  57. Tymieniecka, Anna Teresa (1994). "Chapter III: The creative self and the other in search of the sacred". In Tischner, Józef; Życiński, Józef; McClean, George (eds.). The Philosophy of Person: Solidarity and cultural creativity. Polish Philosophical Studies. Vol. I. Washington, DC: Paideia Publishers / Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. p. 32. ISBN 9781565180499.
    McLean, George F.; Meynell, Hugo Anthony (1988). The Nature of Metaphysical Knowledge. Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. p. 32. ISBN 9780819169266.
  58. Deuraseh, Nurdeen; Abu Talib, Mansor (2005). "Mental health in Islamic medical tradition". The International Medical Journal. 4 (2): 76–79.
  59. Bragazzi, NL; Khabbache, H; et al. (2018). "Neurotheology of Islam and Higher Consciousness States". Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy. 14 (2): 315–21.
  60. Th. Emil Homerin (2006). "Soul". In Jane Dammen McAuliffe (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. Vol. 5. Brill.
  61. ^ J Jaini (1940). Outlines of Jainism. Cambridge University Press. pp. xxii–xxiii.
  62. Jaini, Jagmandar-lāl (1927), Gommatsara Jiva-kanda, p. 54 Alt URL
  63. Sarao, K.T.S.; Long, Jeffery D., eds. (2017). "Jiva". Buddhism and Jainism. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer Netherlands. p. 594. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-0852-2_100397. ISBN 978-94-024-0851-5.
  64. Sangave, Vilas Adinath (2001). Aspects of Jaina religion (3 ed.). Bharatiya Jnanpith. pp. 15–16. ISBN 81-263-0626-2.
  65. "Forgotten Gandhi, Virchand Gandhi (1864–1901) – Advocate of Universal Brotherhood". All Famous Quotes. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013.
  66. Zohar, Rayah Mehemna, Terumah 158b. See Leibowitz, Aryeh (2018). The Neshamah: A Study of the Human Soul. Feldheim Publishers. pp. 27, 110. ISBN 1-68025-338-7
  67. The only person mentioned in the Torah celebrating birthday (party) is the wicked pharaoh of Egypt Genesis 40:20–22.
  68. "About Jewish Birthdays". Judaism 101. Aish.com. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  69. "Soul". jewishencyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016.
  70. "Nurturing The Human Soul—From Cradle To Grave". Chizuk Shaya: Dvar Torah Resource. 6 January 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  71. "Neshamah: Levels of Soul Consciousness". Chabad.org Kabbalah Online. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  72. Weiner, Rebecca Reincarnation and Judaism. jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved July 2 2024
  73. ^ "Views on Heaven or Hell, Individuals as Eternal Spiritual Beings: Official Church of Scientology". Official Church of Scientology: What is Scientology?. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  74. ^ Sumegi, Angela (2008). Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Place. SUNY Press. p. 16. ISBN 9780791478264.
  75. ^ Bock, Nona J.T. (2005). Shamanic techniques: their use and effectiveness in the practice of psychotherapy (PDF) (MSc). University of Wisconsin-Stout.
  76. ^ Drobin, Ulf (2016). "Introduction". In Jackson, Peter (ed.). Horizons of Shamanism (PDF). Stockholm University Press. pp. xiv–xvii. ISBN 978-91-7635-024-9.
  77. Hoppál, Mihály (2007). Shamans and Traditions. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 17–26. ISBN 978-963-05-8521-7.
  78. ^ Winkelman, Michael James (2016). "Shamanism and the Brain". In Niki, Kasumi-Clements (ed.). Religion: Mental Religion. Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 355–372. ISBN 9780028663609.
  79. ^ Winkelman, Michael (2002). "Shamanic universals and evolutionary psychology". Journal of Ritual Studies. 16 (2): 63–76. JSTOR 44364143.
  80. ^ Hoppál, Mihály. "Nature worship in Siberian shamanism".
  81. "Great Basin Indian". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
  82. ^ Merkur, Daniel (1985). Becoming Half Hidden / Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. pp. 61, 222–223, 226, 240. ISBN 91-22-00752-0.
  83. Kulmar, Tarmo . "Conceptions of soul in old-Estonian religion".
  84. ^ Tan, Michael L. (2008). Revisiting Usog, Pasma, Kulam. University of the Philippines Press. ISBN 9789715425704.
  85. ^ Clifford Sather (2018). "A work of love: Awareness and expressions of emotion in a Borneo healing ritual". In James J. Fox (ed.). Expressions of Austronesian Thought and Emotions. ANU Press. pp. 57–63. ISBN 9781760461928.
  86. Harrell, Stevan (1979). "The Concept of Soul in Chinese Folk Religion". The Journal of Asian Studies. 38 (3): 519–528. doi:10.2307/2053785. JSTOR 2053785. S2CID 162507447.
  87. ^ McClelland, Norman C. (2010). Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma. McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 251, 258. ISBN 978-0-7864-4851-7.
  88. Hoppál, Mihály (1994). Sámánok. Lelkek és jelképek . Budapest: Helikon Kiadó. p. 225. ISBN 963-208-298-2.
  89. Yu, Jose Vidamor B. (2000). Inculturation of Filipino-Chinese Culture Mentality. Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations. Vol. 3. Editrice Pontifica Universita Gregoriana. pp. 148–149. ISBN 9788876528484.
  90. Robert Blust; Stephen Trussel. "*du". ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary - Cognate Sets - D. Austronesian Comparative Dictionary. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  91. Leonardo N. Mercado (1991). "Soul and Spirit in Filipino Thought". Philippine Studies. 39 (3): 287–302. JSTOR 42633258.
  92. Zeus A. Salazar (2007). "Faith healing in the Philippines: An historical perspective" (PDF). Asian Studies. 43 (2v): 1–15.
  93. Kleivan & Sonne 1985, pp. 17–18.
  94. Gabus 1970, p. 211.
  95. SGGS, M 1, p. 1153.
  96. SGGS, M 4, p. 1325.
  97. SGGS, M 1, p. 1030.
  98. "Encyclopedia of Death and Dying (2008)". deathreference.com. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  99. Ginzberg, L. (1909a). "Adam". The Legends of the Jews. Translated by Szold, Henrietta. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society. vol I, ch II. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
  100. ^ Ginzberg, L. (1909b). "The Soul of Man". The Legends of the Jews. Translated by Szold, Henrietta. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society. vol I, ch II. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
  101. Ramsay, Tamasin (September 2010). Custodians of Purity An Ethnography of the Brahma Kumaris (Thesis). Monash University. p. 105.
  102. Steiner, Rudolf (1994). Theosophy: an introduction to the spiritual processes in human life and in the cosmos. Translated by Creeger, Catherine E. (3rd ed.). Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press. pp. 42–46. ISBN 978-0-88010-373-2.
  103. Baba, Meher. (1987). Discourses. Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-1-880619-09-4.
  104. Klemp, H. (2009). The call of soul. Minneapolis, MN: Eckankar
  105. Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch (25 February 1999). Life is real only then, when 'I am'. London: Arkana. ISBN 978-0-14-019585-9. OCLC 41073474.
  106. For more on the basic meaning of the Greek word, see Claus 1981. Claus, David. 1981. Toward the Soul: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Psyche Before Plato. New Haven and London: Yale University Press
  107. "Soul (noun)". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 1 December 2016. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  108. Lorenz, Hendrik (2009). "Ancient Theories of Soul". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
  109. Francis M. Cornford, Greek Religious Thought, p. 64, referring to Pindar, Fragment 131.
  110. Erwin Rohde, Psyche, 1928.
  111. ^ Campbell, Douglas (2021). "Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul". The Southern Journal of Philosophy. 59: 523–544.
  112. Jones, David (2009). The Gift of Logos: Essays in Continental Philosophy. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 33–35. ISBN 978-1-4438-1825-4. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  113. See Karfik 2005. Karfik, Filip. 2005. “What the Mortal Parts of the Soul Really Are.” Rhizai: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 2: 197–217.
  114. Cornford, Francis (1941). The Republic of Plato. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. xxv.
  115. Campbell, Douglas (2021). "Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul". The Southern Journal of Philosophy. 59: 523–544
  116. Plato, Republic, Book 1, 353d. Translation found in Campbell 2021: 523.
  117. Frede, Dorothea. 1978. "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo 102a–107a". Phronesis, 23.1: 27–41.
  118. Broadie, Sarah. 2001. “Soul and Body in Plato and Descartes.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101: 295–308.
  119. Aristotle. On The Soul. p. 412b5.
  120. Aristotle. Physics. Book VIII, Chapter 5, pp. 256a5–22.
  121. Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Book I, Chapter 7, pp. 1098a7–17.
  122. Aristotle. Physics. Book III, Chapter 1, pp. 201a10–25.
  123. Aristotle. On The Soul. Book III, Chapter 5, pp. 430a24–25.
  124. Shields, Christopher (2011). "supplement: The Active Mind of De Anima iii 5)". Aristotle's Psychology. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  125. Smith, J. S. (Trans) (1973). Introduction to Aristotle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 155–59.
  126. Nahyan A.G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)" Archived 4 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 209–10 (Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame).
  127. "Arabic and Islamic Psychology and Philosophy of Mind". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 29 May 2012.
  128. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman (1996), History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 315, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13159-6.
  129. Nahyan A.G. Fancy (2006). Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame (Thesis). University of Notre Dame. pp. 209–210. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015.
  130. Aquinas, Thomas. "Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate" (in Latin). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  131. Aquinas, Thomas. "Super Boetium de Trinitate" (in Latin). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  132. ^ Gennadius of Massilia. De Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus. canon XIV.
    cited in
    Aquinas, Thomas, St. (1920a) . "Objection 4". Summa Theologica. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Pars I, Quaestio 118, Article 2 – via newadvent.org.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  133. Aquinas, Thomas, St. (1920b) . "Whether besides the intellectual soul there are in man other souls essentially different from one another?". Summa Theologica. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Pars I, Quaestio 76, Article 3 – via newadvent.org.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  134. Aquinas, Thomas, St. (1920c) . "Reply to objection 1". Summa Theologica. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Pars I, Quaestio 76, Article 3 – via newadvent.org.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  135. Bishop, Paul (2000). Synchronicity and Intellectual Intuition in Kant, Swedenborg, and Jung. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 262–267. ISBN 978-0-7734-7593-9.
  136. Ryle, Gilbert (1949). The Concept of Mind. University of Chicago Press.
  137. Rank, Otto (1950). Psychology and the Soul: Otto Rank's Seelenglaube und Psychologie. Translated by Turner, William D. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 11. OCLC 928087.
  138. *Becker, Ernest (1973). The Denial of Death. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 76. ISBN 0-684-83240-2.
  139. ^ Santoro, G; Wood, MD; Merlo, L; Anastasi, GP; Tomasello, F; Germanò, A (October 2009). "The anatomic location of the soul from the heart, through the brain, to the whole body, and beyond: a journey through Western history, science, and philosophy". Neurosurgery. 65 (4): 633–43, discussion 643. doi:10.1227/01.NEU.0000349750.22332.6A. PMID 19834368. S2CID 27566267.
  140. O. Carter Snead. "Cognitive Neuroscience and the Future of Punishment Archived 5 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine" (2010).
  141. Kandel, ER; Schwartz JH; Jessell TM; Siegelbaum SA; Hudspeth AJ. "Principles of Neural Science, Fifth Edition" (2012).
  142. Andrea Eugenio Cavanna, Andrea Nani, Hal Blumenfeld, Steven Laureys. "Neuroimaging of Consciousness" (2013).
  143. Farah, Martha J.; Murphy, Nancey (February 2009). "Neuroscience and the Soul". Science. 323 (5918): 1168. doi:10.1126/science.323.5918.1168a. PMID 19251609. S2CID 6636610.
  144. Max Velmans, Susan Schneider. "The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness" (2008). p. 560.
  145. Matt Carter, Jennifer C. Shieh. "Guide to Research Techniques in Neuroscience" (2009).
  146. Squire, L. et al. "Fundamental Neuroscience, 4th edition" (2012). Chapter 43.
  147. Blanke, Olaf (2009). The Neurology of Consciousness. London, UK: Academic Publishers. pp. 303–324. ISBN 978-0-12-374168-4.
  148. Parnia, Sam (February 2017). "Understanding the cognitive experience of death and the near-death experience". QJM: An International Journal of Medicine. 110 (2): 67–69. doi:10.1093/qjmed/hcw185. PMID 28100825.
  149. Greyson, Bruce (2010). "Implications of near-death experiences for a post-materialist psychology" (PDF). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. 2 (1): 37–45. doi:10.1037/a0018548.
  150. Sleutjes A, Moreira-Almeida A, Greyson B (November 2014). "Almost 40 years investigating near-death experiences: An overview of mainstream scientific journals". J Nerv Ment Dis. 202 (11): 833–836. doi:10.1097/NMD.0000000000000205. PMID 25357254. S2CID 16765929.
  151. ^ Petre, Jonathan (22 October 2000). "Soul-searching doctors find life after death". The Telegraph. London, UK.
  152. Carroll, Sean (23 May 2011). "Physics and the immortality of the soul". preposterousuniverse.com (blog). Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  153. ^ Clarke, Peter G.H. (21 November 2013). "Neuroscience, quantum indeterminism and the Cartesian soul". Brain and Cognition. 84 (1): 109–117. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2013.11.008. ISSN 0278-2626. PMID 24355546. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  154. Milbourne Christopher. (1979). Search for the Soul: An Insider's Report on the Continuing Quest by Psychics and Scientists for Evidence of Life After Death. Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers.
  155. Mary Roach. (2010). Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Canongate Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84767-080-9
  156. MacDougall, Duncan (1907). "The Soul: Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together with Experimental Evidence of the Existence of Such Substance". American Medicine. New Series. 2: 240–43.
  157. "How much does the soul weights?". Live Science. December 2012. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016.
  158. Park, Robert L. (2009). Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science. Princeton University Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-691-13355-3
  159. Hood, Bruce. (2009). Supersense: From Superstition to Religion – The Brain Science of Belief. Constable. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-84901-030-6

Further reading

External links

Religion
Religious groups and denominations
Western
Abrahamic
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Other
Iranian
Zoroastrian
Kurdish
Other
Eastern
East Asian
Chinese
Japonic
Korean
Vietnamese
Indian
Hinduism
Buddhism
Other
Ethnic
Altaic
Austroasiatic
Austronesian
Native
American
Tai and Miao
Tibeto-Burmese
Traditional
African
North African
Sub-Saharan
African
Other ethnic
New
religious
movements
Syncretic
Modern
paganism
De novo
Historical religions
Topics
Aspects
Theism
Religious
studies
Religion
and society
Secularism
and irreligion
Overviews
and lists
Religion by country
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America
Oceania
South America
Philosophy of religion
Concepts in religion
Conceptions of God
God in
Existence of God
For
Against
Theology
Religious language
Problem of evil
Philosophers
of religion
(by date active)
Ancient and
medieval
Early modern
1800
1850
1880
1900
1920
postwar
1970
1990
2010
Related topics
Modern spirituality
Concepts
Practices
Belief systems
Texts
Virtues
Ghosts and ghostlore
List of ghosts
Manifestations
By continent
and culture
African
Asian
Europe
North America
South America
Oceania
History
Parapsychology
Popular culture
Court cases
Related
Categories: