Final Paper PHL Kloke
The Mind, the Soul, and Death.
Rachael Kloke
Southern New Hampshire University
Philosophy 110
Dr. Tina Gibson
February 21, 2015 The existence of a soul has dogged mankind for as long as we have existed. Each individual has felt a stirring within at times of joy, sorrow, or a moment of apprehension. This stirring is unique to each as an individual experience as well as the larger shared human experience. Is this experience linked the mind, somehow? Are the mind and the soul two separate entities within, or are they the same, and does it exist beyond mortal death?
These larger questions of the soul and the mind and their existence beyond human death has been debated and explored throughout time. Yet, we lack hard evidence to support the idea of the existence of the soul and its continued ‘life’ beyond the death of the body. Individuals have not returned from the grave to transmit this knowledge in any manner that can be tested, studied, and deemed true. What a soul is and why we have it is unique to the human experience. The Abrahamic traditions defines the soul as the “I” that lives within our body and acts through it. The soul is what makes each individual unique according to theologian Thomas Aquinas. Noted philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all argued that the psyche or, the soul, was the “crown of the logical facilities”. Yet the mind is responsible for processing our human experiences and storing them as learned experiences that shape and mold our continued existence.
These experiences dictate who we are and what actions that we take. In this brief paper, I will explore the idea that the soul is a frame of reference that does not exist outside of our own individual experience, completely different from the mind and that it does not survive physical death.
Plato considered the soul ‘to be the immortal essence of the person’ and to house three individual parts- Reason, Emotion, and Desire (Jowett, 2007). While the soul
Rachael Kloke
Southern New Hampshire University
Philosophy 110
Dr. Tina Gibson
February 21, 2015 The existence of a soul has dogged mankind for as long as we have existed. Each individual has felt a stirring within at times of joy, sorrow, or a moment of apprehension. This stirring is unique to each as an individual experience as well as the larger shared human experience. Is this experience linked the mind, somehow? Are the mind and the soul two separate entities within, or are they the same, and does it exist beyond mortal death?
These larger questions of the soul and the mind and their existence beyond human death has been debated and explored throughout time. Yet, we lack hard evidence to support the idea of the existence of the soul and its continued ‘life’ beyond the death of the body. Individuals have not returned from the grave to transmit this knowledge in any manner that can be tested, studied, and deemed true. What a soul is and why we have it is unique to the human experience. The Abrahamic traditions defines the soul as the “I” that lives within our body and acts through it. The soul is what makes each individual unique according to theologian Thomas Aquinas. Noted philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all argued that the psyche or, the soul, was the “crown of the logical facilities”. Yet the mind is responsible for processing our human experiences and storing them as learned experiences that shape and mold our continued existence.
These experiences dictate who we are and what actions that we take. In this brief paper, I will explore the idea that the soul is a frame of reference that does not exist outside of our own individual experience, completely different from the mind and that it does not survive physical death.
Plato considered the soul ‘to be the immortal essence of the person’ and to house three individual parts- Reason, Emotion, and Desire (Jowett, 2007). While the soul
Cited: Carus, T., & Copley, F. (2011). On the nature of things. New York: W.W. Norton. Descartes, R., & Gaukroger, S. (1998). The world and other writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jimo Borjigin, Et al. (2013). Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain. PNAS. Jowett, B. (2007). Six great dialogues. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. Lowe, E. (2013). The Routledge guidebook to Locke 's Essay concerning human understanding. New York: Routledge. Murray, Craig D. (2009). Psychological Scientific Perspectives on Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences. New York: Nova Science Publishers.