Philosophy of Soul

(Originally written May 8, 2007 in Book 25)

Soul

There are many theories about the soul that are dualistic, but there are a few that are not.

Thomas Hobbes believed that man was purely physical.

Bishop Berkeley believed that the physical nature was essentially soul.

Plato - essence of man is his soul, which is trapped in the body

Descartes
- Dualist, but not as strict as Plato
- Believed the soul and body interacted

Problems: implied that there is a specific center between physical and soul
How can extended and unextended substances interact?

Augustine
- Soul and physical men make up whole man
- somewhat Platonic
- Believed the soul was immortal
- Soul gives life to the body

Nemesius
- Platonic
- Soul not just a part of a composite man
- Soul is an intelligible substance, incorporeal substance

Problem: if man is a soul that uses the body, what is the body?

Bible rules out some theories:
1. Materialism (Hobbes)
2. Spiritualism (Berkeley) [Not Really]
3. Strict Dualism

Aristotle
- Everything has four causes:
1. Final
2. Material
3. Formal
4. Efficient

Man:
- Soul is the formal Cause
- Mom and Dad is the efficient cause
- Flesh & bones is the material cause
- Happiness is the final cause

Soul is the form of man. Soul is inextricable from the body.

Aristotle's theory allows for a separation of mind and body

Aristotle's theory allows for a separation of mind and body

Does not have the Cartesian problems.

Allows man to be physical and spiritual

His theory is Biblically justifiable

Thomas Aquinas

Soul is the form of man, but differed from Aristotle

God: Ideals -> Exemplar Cause:
- Efficient
- Formal
- Material
- Final

Soul distinguish us from animals.
Soul is not the motor of the body
Soul is indestructible (similar to Plato)

Antony Flew objected:

Why is the new Flew better than the original Flew (post-return of Christ/resurrection of the body)?

Thomas' questions

1. Is the soul a body?
2. Is the soul a man or is the man composite of body and soul?
3. Is the soul composed of matter and form?
4. Is the intellectual principle united to the body as a form?
5. Is the intellectual principle multiplied according to the bodies or a single collective mind?

The soul is moved accidentally, but the body is moved essentially.

The soul is the first principle of life.

The soul is not a body, but is the act of a body.

The intellect is the form of the body. It is separate, but it still exists in matter. The intellect can be united with the body but not an act of the body.

How can the soul influence the body?

Way of power relation:

How does the pot hold the clay together? Power relation. There is no mechanism that holds it together, but it does. So it is how the soul influences the body.

Man: Shape, vegetative soul, sensitive soul and rational soul are the form of man

The soul and body are aspects of the single substance that is man.

String Theory?