John Page

Agreed. I'd perhaps prefer to ask why the concept of the soul exists in the mind of man.

When we talk about the soul or spirit of a person, I think it means the essence of that person expressed as a unique set of characteristics, often using emotional terminology. e.g. soft, gentle, harsh; behavioral terminology e.g. forgiving, kind, aggresive and moral terminology e.g. god-like, integrity.

I can think of many (evolutionary) uses for a sense of the soul of others, esp. in predicting their behavior and whether it is beneficial to deal with them.

I conclude that the soul is a meta-measure of man, used by man to analyze and describe the essentials of another.

Any soul think I'm anywhere close?

Cheers, John

Amos

I would say that the mind is part of the soul and the soul is more like the 80% we do not have conscious control over.

Answerer

So Amos, according to your definitions, are our souls some kind of super-consciousness or something else?

managalar

soul is a word people use

often these people use it synonymous with "a set of complex response and diagnostic algorithms which I consider as me"

often people confuse the abstract nature of brain software with other abstract things that 'just are', and thus consider themselves immortal

excreationist

That would just be about their personality really... which would be the cause of their observable behaviour. (I think their personality is caused purely by physical processes of course).

excreationist

I think activities involving thought, memory, sensory processing, etc, is done with our brains though... what happens if our physical brains are destroyed? What happens to this "soul"?

crocodile deathroll

I just interpret to soul as "subjective reality" and I doubt if there is more than one. I certainly do not believe in "souls" plural. They are just manifestions of subjective reality.

abe smith

Like a whoh -lot of other human junk-thinking, the alleged 'soul' is a human fiction.

crocodile deathroll

By "soul" I simply mean "subjective reality" or more specifically the "sense of self" or "individualized consciousness" not something that can detach iself from the body in some form of discarnate spirit

Theli

And ofcourse there's the question about what excacly is "subjective". Especially since, in a conversation a smaller part of the consciousness of the single person "merges" into the other person through words and gestures. And ofcourse, could a remote control be refered to as a part of the individual using it?