Soul, Mind and Body
People use the term the soul in a range of ways, not always precisely, which can make it difficult for others to grasp exactly what the word means to religious believers. Some people use the term ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ interchangeably; others talk of the ‘body and soul’ or ‘body and mind’. However, when people speak of someone having a good mind they mean something very different from when they say someone has a ‘good soul’ and again when people say someone is ’good in spirit’. The blurring of these terms can often make discussion of the soul confusing?
In the philosophical sense ‘the soul’ is mainly used as meaning the same as ‘self’, to refer to the subject of mental states and of spiritual experience. However, ‘the self’ has a wider meaning than the soul, as the idea of ‘the self’ can include ‘mind and body’ together as one coherent person, whereas the ‘soul’ is usually used to mean on particular aspect of ‘the self’: the part that according to religious believers is capable of having a relationship with God and which carries on the possibility of living after death. For some, ‘the soul’ is the most important aspect of human nature. For others, the idea of the soul makes no sense.
Dualists
In the philosophical sense ‘the soul’ is mainly used as meaning the same as ‘self’, to refer to the subject of mental states and of spiritual experience. However, ‘the self’ has a wider meaning than the soul, as the idea of ‘the self’ can include ‘mind and body’ together as one coherent person, whereas the ‘soul’ is usually used to mean on particular aspect of ‘the self’: the part that according to religious believers is capable of having a relationship with God and which carries on the possibility of living after death. For some, ‘the soul’ is the most important aspect of human nature. For others, the idea of the soul makes no sense.
Dualists
- There are two aspects to human beings, a physical body and a non-physical soul
- They tend to believe in life after death
- Humans beings are made of one substance, the physical body
- They reject the concept of life after death –there is no scientific evidence for the ‘soul’
- They believe in only one substance, matter and therefore dualism is incorrect as it postulates the existence of matter and a non-physical substance
- A person’s identity is inextricably linked to their physical body so when the body dies, their life ends
- They contend that all experiences, emotions and thoughts are derived from our brains and that everything can be explained by the mental activity of the brain
- The materialist argument for not accepting survival after death may be summarised as follows:
- Life depends on a functioning brain, nervous system and physical body.
- Death involves the destruction of the brain, the nervous system and physical body.
- Therefore a person’s life ends at death, as without a physical form life cannot be supported.
Plato
Aristotle
Consciousness and Substance Dualism
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