Chapter 7 (The Soul in the West)
- eldergregory06
- Jun 19, 2024
- 30 min read
This chapter continues the discussion of the soul begun in Chapter 6, turning to notions of the soul in the West.
Before about the 6th century BCE, there was little concept of the soul in the West. In Homer (8th century BCE) the individual was composed of multiple parts with a range of terms describing them, including heart, guts, and spirit, but there was no clear delineation of immortal parts from mortal. At death, the soul was exhaled with the last breaths and scattered. There was no clear description of what if anything happened to it.
Pythagoras
Pythagoras (570-495 BCE) is probably the first figure in the West to have a notion of the soul. Pythagoras is best known today for the Pythagorean theorem concerning right triangles. However, he took his interest in mathematics and applied it to organization of the universe believing the organization of the universe is contained in numbers. Pythagoras considered the role of numbers not just descriptive but prescriptive. For example, he and his followers considered the number 10, so magical that even though there were only 9 celestial bodies known at the time, he postulated that there must a 10th sphere which he posited to be a counter earth. He further believed that the 10 celestial bodies rubbed against one other to produce a celestial music, the music of the spheres, which our unpurified ears cannot hear. Humans possess an immortal soul which reincarnates into another human form after death. Through a process of purification of mind, body and soul he thought it was possible to hear the music of the spheres. The soul would be reborn again and again until it became purified and mathematically tuned to the harmony of the cosmos, at which time the soul could ascend to the heavens and be freed from the cycles of transmigration.
Pythagoras founded a school based on his teachings which practiced an ascetic communal life style and had a number of idiosyncratic rules such as a prohibition against eating beans. His notions concerning the role of numbers in the universe appear again later in the work of Galileo and Newton but not in the prescriptive form Pythagoras envisioned. While Pythagoras’ notions about a music of the spheres would have little lasting influence, his ideas concerning an immortal soul, reincarnation and a process of purification and ultimate escape from this world are remarkably similar to ideas in the East that had developed by 500 BCE. His ideas influenced Plato, Aristotle and other Greek philosophers.
Plato
Plato (427-348 BCE) is generally regarded as the most influential philosopher in the West. Alford North Whitehead’s famous quote that “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” is not as much of an exaggeration as one might at first thing it must be. Plato was the first dualist in the West. He invented soul/body dualism in the West. But I think it is easiest to understand Plato’s dualism by first understanding his metaphysics as illustrated in the allegory of the cave.
Plato’s allegory of the cave
The allegory of the cave appears in the middle of The Republic which is Plato’s extended exploration of the necessary conditions for justice and stability in a society. The cave represents the state we are in now, how we actually live our lives. Plato says imagine we are in a dark cave chained to a wall. Furthermore, our heads are fixed to the wall so that we can only see shadows projected on the wall in front of us. Those shadows are generated by puppets that are above our heads. The projections on the wall come from a fire behind the puppets which creates the shadows. Plato describes it like being a prisoner and while a prisoner the shadows are all we see of the world.
To escape this situation, we must first of all become unchained from the wall which Plato refers to as being liberated. Then a process of conversion must occur where we turn around and realize the source of the shadows on the wall. This process is painful. We next realize that there is a tunnel leading out of the cave and at the end of the tunnel is a bright light. We walk out of the cave through the tunnel into the light. The light is very bright and at first our eyes are blinded by it but gradually our eyes become accustomed to it and we are able to see objects like trees and animals, but these objects differ from those in the cave in that they are perfect and permanent. They are not subject to decay. Behind the triangles that we see in the cave in the world of forms there is a real triangle. This is what Plato calls the world of forms. It is the world of the deathless. Only material objects in the cave change. The world of forms is the true world and we see the world of forms with the mind’s eye not the body’s eye.
Later as our eyes become even more accustomed to the brightness of the world of forms, one is able to see a great sun which illuminates the forms. It is the source of all being. Initially one cannot stay in the world of the forms and after a period of time the prisoner is compelled to return to the cave where he may teach others how to get out of the cave.
Plato’s motivations for writing the allegory of the cave are not exactly known. One suggestion is that it is as an allegory for education much of what the Republic is about. The process of education is the turning around, rejecting conventional wisdom and seeing the world the way it is. It has also been suggested that Plato may have been trying to resolve the contrasting views of earlier philosophers like Heraclitus and Parmenides both whom lived in the 6th-5th centuries BCE. Heraclitus saw a world in constant change, a pluralistic world in which nothing remains the same for long. Parmenides saw a world that never changes. Plato may have attempted to resolve the monism of Parmenides with the pluralism of Heraclitus by saying they are both right. There is the world we see around us which is pluralistic and in constant change while at the same time there is a true unchanging world of being outside the cave.
However, Plato’s allegory has a mystical aspect that is hard to ignore. Education and reason can only take one so far. There is the perishable impermanent life in the cave which can be appreciated through education and reason but then there is the permanent unchanging world of perfect forms, true forms. This world cannot be seen with the bodies eye or fully appreciated by education or reason but only appreciated with the non-physical mind’s eye.
What then moves between the cave and the world of forms? A physical impermanent body can’t. In the Phaedo, Plato would propose that what does so is a soul which is ultimately connected to the forms. This soul is immortal and cannot die. It does not decay, unlike the physical body which decays and upon death becomes a corpse. In the Phaedrus, the soul starts out being outside the cave, without a body, contemplating the forms. Birth is a fall, a mistake, where the soul falls into the cave and becomes entangled with a body. The soul becomes a prisoner of the body. The soul comes into the body with knowledge of the forms but entangled with a body the soul forgets the world of forms and becomes concerned with money and other earthly attachments. Birth is thus a process of forgetting. However, the soul wants to be reconnected to the forms. Learning is a process of recollecting what you already knew in order to return to the forms. To Plato the true philosopher is one who wants to separate the soul from the body and return to the world of forms where one has perfect knowledge of all causes and being.
Although Plato’s concept of the soul starts out simple, in The Republic he will make it more complicated. He will suggest that the soul is like a charioteer with two horses. The charioteer represents reason. One of the horses is the spiritual part of the soul representing strength, courage and obedience. The other horse is lustful and driven by desire. The fall happens when the charioteer becomes tired of trying to control these two opposing aspects of the soul. Plato also alludes to the soul being like a combination of a man (reason), a lion (courage) and a many headed-beast (desire).
Plato’s views on reincarnation continue to be discussed by scholars today (see Campbell. The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 75, 2022, pp. 643-665). Plato mentions reincarnation frequently in his writings. He often sites examples of how people based on the lives they live now will be reincarnated as different types of animals in their next lives, for example stating that dull people will be reincarnated as shellfish. The problem in interpreting these statements is that Plato often mentions reincarnation in the context of myths (e.g. the myth of Er in The Republic) where he seems to be engaging in more of a thought experiment than making a clear statement about what he believes happens after death.
Plato clearly made distinctions between body and soul and that an immortal soul can exist embodied (in a body) or disembodied (without a body). The disembodied state in the world of forms is preferable. The way one escapes the embodied state we are now in is by a living a virtuous life and becoming a philosopher who understands the way the world is and lives contemplating the forms. In the Phaedo, Plato further mentions detachment from the body's concerns as important for purification of the soul and that a good soul departs the body easily at death, while a bad soul lingers because of its desire to enter a body again. It seems clear that most will not achieve the purified state in a single lifetime. Therefore, reincarnation seems a necessary component for Plato’s system to work. As long as souls remain in the unpurified state they are bound to bodies in this world. Once they reach the purified state, they become disembodied and can return to the world of forms.
Aristotle
Aristotle (348-322 BCE) is considered the second most influential Western philosopher after Plato. Aristotle invented logic, physics, botany and natural philosophy. He gave metaphysics its name. Plato in my mind was a mystic. The allegory of the cave reeks of mystical vision. Aristotle was not a mystic. Their differences in approach can be summarized in Raphael’s famous painting of the academy of Plato, The School of Athens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens). In this painting Plato and Aristotle are seen walking side by side with a group of students around them. Plato is pointing to the heavens saying to Aristotle the answer is up there. Aristotle is pointing straight ahead saying no Plato look at the world in front of you. The answer is right here.
Aristotle seems to have been a critic of Plato’s world of forms from very early on. He wanted to understand the world that we are in now, how things grow and change. Plato’s forms don’t help very much in understanding how change occurs in this world as the forms are unchanging. Aristotle will adopt a view that the forms don’t exist separate from this changing world. Rather the forms are embedded in objects in this world. Aristotle brings the forms down to earth.
Aristotle would argue that a thing in this world is a composite of matter and form. For example, a house is made of wood and other physical elements but it also has a form. The matter of a house is the wood and materials used to construct it but the wood and materials alone do not make it house. The form of a house is its structure plus the purpose of a house which is something to live in. It is this structure and purpose that makes it a form. Aristotelian forms are not disembodied but a house can exist as a form in the mind independent of a house in the real world. Aristotle would also emphasize the notion of potential and actual. A child has the potential to become an adult but may never become so. Aristotle wanted to understand the process of change.
Applying this logic to the soul, Aristotle would argue that we are made of flesh and bone but that is not our essence, our form. The concept of soul would come into Aristotle’s thinking in that he would say that the form of a living being is its soul. A dead corpse has flesh and bone but those are not its essence, its soul. For Aristotle, all living things including animals and plants would have souls but he would consider there being different kinds of souls. A dog for example has a soul but it does not have a rationale soul. A dog cannot understand mathematics or do complex thinking. However, a dog has a locomotive soul and can run around, chase balls, and eat. Plants also have souls but theirs are nutritive souls. They can take in nutrients and grow but do little else. Aristotle’s views on the soul in relation to the afterlife and reincarnation are still debated among scholars today (see Coombs, South African Journal of Philosophy 2017 Vol. 36 (4): 541-552). It seems hard to say.
Stoicism
Stoicism is important historically in being the most publicly favored philosophy in Roman culture. Most educated Romans who professed a belief in a religion or philosophy would probably have described themselves as Stoics. Stoicism arose as a response to particularly epicureanism and skepticism. Epicurus (341-270 BCE) believed in a soul but adopted a strictly materialistic view of it. He thought that the soul was made of particles similar to those in breath and fire. At death the atoms survived but the soul they had once contributed to no longer existed. Skeptics held that the possibility of any secure knowledge on any subject was suspect. This viewpoint precluded much being said about the existence of a soul. Stoicism’s founder Zeno (335-263 BCE) attacked all the major competing philosophies of his time including Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and the skeptics.
Stoics would develop relatively complex views on the soul. They would consider first of all that a soul exists in all living organisms. Zeno was also very much a materialist. The only things that are real are things that are solid and can be physically appreciated. Since only physical things can come from physical things, the soul must be physical. The basic physical elements of existence are earth, water, fire and air. Stoics saw these elements being associated with two principles: heavy/passive or active. Earth and water were considered heavy and passive while air and fire were active. Earth and water were the constituents of solid stuff like clods of dirt or mountains. Air and fire were associated with more active processes including life.
The soul consisted of a breath-like substance called pneuma composed of air and fire. The soul in combination with the physical body, made of the heavy elements were necessary to have a living being. The soul provided the animating force that gave rise to life and was the seat of the faculties of mind including sensations, feelings, thoughts, intelligence and reason. The body supported the physical needs of the organism. Later stoic philosophers would soften, this original hard materialistic conception of the soul and would accept something more immaterial like Plato.
While part of the individual, the human soul in stoicism was also conceived of as being part of a larger universal soul. This universal soul which could be called God and which some stoics called Zeus, was the animating force and organizing principle behind the universe. This universal soul was the consciousness and reason of the cosmos. It directed the universe and a portion of it was in all of us. The one universal soul and its connection to the whole universe meant that a portion of God is within all of us, both animating us and endowing us with reason and intelligence. The stoics further held the cosmological view that the universe would periodically be consumed in its entirety by fire and then regenerated anew. This process was thought to repeat endlessly.
During sleep there was thought to be a loosening of the soul’s connection to the body. However, it was only at the time of death that the soul fully separated from the body. What happened to the soul after death was a matter of differing opinions among stoics. The souls of irrational beasts were generally thought to dissolve along with the body and no longer exist. Cleanthes (331-232 BCE), the immediate successor to Zeno held that the souls of all men could survive. However, Panaetius (185-110 BCE) thought that the souls of humans were mortal and perished with the body. By contrast, Chrysippus (280-207 BCE), believed that the souls of the wise endured. The souls of the unwise might exist for a limited time but then would be destroyed and reabsorbed into the cosmic soul. Posidonius (135-51 BCE) thought that after death, souls of the virtuous rise and continue to live in air until the next universal conflagration. However, the souls of the wicked being muddied and weighted down by their misdeeds remain near earth’s surface and could be reincarnated.
In one sense stoicism can be seen as representing a rather pessimistic world view. There is no heaven or hell. The universe is periodically consumed by fire in its entirety and then regenerated anew. This process repeats endlessly with no way out except perhaps temporary escapes before the next conflagration.
With no way out, Stoicism would come to focus on finding practical answers to the daily problem of how should we live now and would look to its metaphysics as a guide. Stoic ethics would be a much more important historical force than stoic metaphysics. However, stoic metaphysics would be a key motivator for stoic ethics. A universal soul connected to the whole universe meant that the whole world is one. We are all brothers and sisters. Since we can’t escape, all we can do is be the best citizens of the world. Zeno’s vision was a cosmopolitan community that would be organized around natural law. Stoicism would stress moral conduct and doing what is right no matter what the consequences. Virtue would be seen as its own reward. As a role model stoics revered Socrates for his discipline, calm and resolve especially in the face of death.
In common usage today the word stoic often refers to being calm and without emotion, one who endures pain or hardship and accepts whatever fate comes to them without complaining. It is fair to say that this attitude was a component of Roman Stoicism. However, cultivating an attitude of virtue as its own reward, Stoics believed would lead to a discipline and apathia or freedom from pathos and passion. Apathia here being different from our modern notions of apathy which is stressed as a negative emotion and meaning more non-attachment. In adopting this attitude Stoicism would move in perhaps sometimes unexpected directions such as the view that the oppressor does more harm to himself than he does to his victim, a notion found in the Mediations of Marcus Aurelius (120-180 CE). It is not hard to see why Stoicism would have a lasting appeal to people in difficult circumstances across the ages.
Plotinus
Plotinus (204-270 CE) is considered the last of the pagan philosophers. Pagan in that he was the last philosopher in the Greco-Roman tradition who does not show any influence of Christianity. Plotinus was born in Egypt and educated in Greek. His principal teacher was a man named Ammonius Saccas (175-243 CE). Scholars debate as to whether Ammonius Saccas was a pagan, a Christian turned pagan and/or may have been of Indian origin. One explanation that has been suggested is there may have been two men named Ammonius Saccas who lived about the same time, one who wrote Christian biblical texts and the other who taught Plotinus. Whatever the truth may be the Ammonius Saccas who taught Plotinus wrote nothing himself and instructed his students not to write anything about his teachings either. The notion of an Indian origin is interesting since Plotinus’ metaphysics can be seen as having many similarities to Indian Vedanta and Samkhya (see chapter 6; also see Gregorios (ed.) Neoplatonism and Indian Philosophy). It also seems clear that Indian philosophies were to some extent known in Alexandria Egypt, at the time Plotinus was a student.
Whatever the case may be, at age 38, Plotinus joined the army of the emperor Gordian III in his campaign on Persia with hopes of that he would be able to discover the philosophies of the East. However, the campaign failed never reaching the East and Plotinus eventually settled in Rome where he spent most of the rest of his life. In Rome he enjoyed some fame as a philosopher, attracting many students and some support from the emperor Gallienus (253-268 CE).
Plotinus is the most important of the Neoplatonist philosophers. Plato was concerned with life outside the cave as well as the ethics of how one behaves inside the cave. Plotinus was less concerned with ethics. He was concerned with the metaphysics connecting the entities inside the cave to the world of the forms outside the cave. He took Plato’s metaphysics, extended it and put it into in a continuous system. The work of Plotinus represents a new direction not reflected in earlier writing. While Plotinus was in some sense the end of the road for ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, he would be widely read and have significant influence on medieval Christian thinking.
The philosophical system of Plotinus is contained in the Enneads. According to Plotinus the things that exist can be broken down into four components:
1) The One
2) Nous
3) The Soul
4) Matter
The first three of these are referred to in Plotinus as hypostases or fundamental essences. The One, Nous and the Soul are immortal while Matter is not. Matter here can be thought of as referring to the material world in general, including the physical body. These four entities are related in that they emanate from one another with the One creating the Nous. The Nous then creates the Soul and the Soul creates the material world including the body which it will inhabit. The process can be reversed in that the Soul can return to the Nous and then the One which is the goal of the spiritual journey for a Soul.
The One in Plotinus is the most elusive element. It may be easiest to let Plotinus explain it for himself. At the beginning of Tractate 2 of the Fifth Ennead Plotinus writes “The One is all things and no one of them; the source of all things is not all things; and yet it is all things in a transcendental sense-all things having run back to it or more correctly not all as yet are within it, they will be” (from the translation by McKenna). There is nothing within the One but it is all things. In terms of what it is not Plotinus indicates that the One is not an intellectual principle and it does not think in any conventional sense. It seems fair to say that the One is incomprehensible to us in our present state. It cannot be described in human language or when we try to describe it, we end up with contradictions. No intellectual effort through reasoning can understand it. Plotinus generally speaks of the One being on the inside. We look inward to see the One and outward to see world. The One can be seen as similar to Plato’s The Good.
Nous has been variously translated as “mind”, “intellect”, “intellectual principle”, “spirit” or “consciousness”. “Mind” seems less appropriate since Nous is not the home for discursive thinking or mundane mental activity. The other terms, spirit, consciousness, and intellectual principle capture elements of Nous if one thinks of intellectual principle as being the divine mind of the universe. I will stick with "Nous" since I don't think that any of the other terms quite capture it. Nous is derived from the One and is in the image of the One. Nous is still part of the divine mind and the highest element in the hierarchy that is knowable by the human mind. Nous is also sometimes thought of collectively as a universal soul.
The Soul is the next lowest element. It was created by the Nous and the Soul then creates the material world including the heavens, earth, animals, plants, and the human body that the Soul enters. As in Plato, birth of the Soul into a body is seen as a fall. The motive for the Soul entering a body is not reason but something more like a primitive desire which in the Fifth Ennead (Tractate 1) Plotinus describes as being like a desire for self-ownership. Once involved with the body, the Soul forgets where it came from.
The Soul may be thought of as having two parts. A part of the Soul looks outward towards the material world while another looks inward towards the One. While joined to the body the Soul is where the material world is understood by the physical senses. The Soul that looks inward has a rationale part and may be thought of as home of the conventional mind. Mental activity in the Soul occurs discursively. The mind thinks of Socrates, a horse, something else in a sequential fashion unlike mental activity in the Nous, where all is known simultaneously.
The Soul is tasked with governing the body but it can become chained to the body when it is too attached. The Soul is at its best when it is contemplating that which is purer than it. Contemplation (Greek, theoria) here meaning a practice leading to a direct awareness of something which transcends us. Contemplation leads to vision of the object. Vision implies not simply seeing the object in the mind, but knowing it and becoming empowered by it, through a process that does not involve the physical eye and is not the direct result of reasoning. This is the process of intellectual vision, seeing with the mind’s eye described in Plato.
Plotinus’ student Porphyry describes that Plotinus reported having the experience of God (the One) four times. In the eight Tractate of the Fourth Ennead, Plotinus offers a description of the experience:
”Many times it has happened: lifted out of the body into myself; becoming external to all other things and self-centered; beholding a marvelous beauty; then more than ever, assured of continuity with the loftiest order; enter acting the noblest life, acquiring identity with the divine; stationing within It by having attained that activity; poised above whatsoever within the Intellectual is less than Supreme: yet, there comes the moment of decent from intellection to reasoning, and after that sojourn in the divine, I ask myself how it happens that I can now be descending and how did the Soul ever enter into my body, the Soul which, even within the body, is the high thing it has shown itself to be” (from the translation by McKenna).
When the Soul is pure, we know the divine mind and we see not only Nous but the One. The goal of the spiritual journey is to reverse the path that brought the Soul into this world and return it to the One. This path starts with the Soul recognizing where it is now and how it has lost connection to its higher self. It must then re-establish connections with the Nous and then the One.
Matter is the lowest realm although Plotinus suggests that there is a kind of matter at all levels, “intelligible” matter at the highest levels. At the level of “matter” matter, it loses that intelligible quality and is no longer immortal. Plotinus rejects the notion of atoms believing that matter is ultimately indivisible (Second Ennead, Fourth Tractate). Indeed, in Plotinus there is a sense of continuity and indivisibility as we move through the levels. The outer Soul and inner Soul are more on a continuum than two distinct entities and the outer Soul extends into matter in a continuous way until there is none of it left. All is on a continuum rather than there being sharp edges. We are always at some level connected with the One if we can retrace the path.
What happens to Soul after death? The Soul is immortal and can’t die while the body dies. Plotinus believed that Souls could reincarnate into other human forms or animals. In the case of animals, only the lower (outer) soul would be found. Souls in a purified state don’t need a body anymore and are able to return to the One. However, since most embodied Souls are not in a purified state when the body dies, they need a place to go and would seem to have no choice other than transmigrates into new bodies.
Plotinus makes some interesting statements In the Eight Tractate of the Third Ennead that seem to indicate that all things including plants, the earth and inanimate matter are engaged in some type of contemplation suggesting some element of Soul exists in them. In this Ennead reference is made to a Nature-Principle which sounds almost like a separate hypostasis distinct from the Intellectual Principle (Nous). This Tractate includes a hypothetical answer that Nature might give if it were asked, why it brings forth its works. In the second Tractate of the Fifth Ennead when commenting on the fate of souls Plotinus writes “when shoots or topmost boughs are lopped from some growing thing where goes the soul...If you cut the root to pieces or burn it, where is the life that was present there?” These comments which seemingly must refer to plants would seem to extend the Soul into non-thinking plants. The answer given in the Fifth Ennead is “whence it came: soul never knew spatial separation is always within the source” suggesting that there is a direct track connecting plant life to the One. This concept is not extensively explored.
Judaism
Nina Totenberg (born 1944) has been a well-known figure on American National Public Radio for many years. In 2004, Totenberg who is Jewish made the statement on NPR’s Morning Edition that “Jews don’t believe in an afterlife” which the show’s host Michael Medved (born 1948) called “a slander to all believing Jews everywhere” (see Sherwin 2006). While lack of belief in an afterlife is not a general feature of Jewish thought, Jews in practice seem generally less concerned with the afterlife than the major Eastern religions, Christianity or Islam
In Jewish scripture there is a consensus on the existence of an individual soul and an afterlife. However, there is no general consensus about the fate of the soul in the afterlife. “Nephesh” is the Hebrew term in the Old Testament that is translated as soul. In Genesis it is used to refer to both humans and animals. It is also associated with the anatomical terms throat and gullet, which can give it connotations of "appetite" at times. The Old Testament describes that after death the Nephesh goes to a place called “Sheol.” Sheol has been variously translated as a "grave," “pit” "hell," or just "death." It is an underworld domain that the Nephesh descends into and is interred within. It is seen by some as a hell where the wicked are punished or by others as only a resting place where little activity occurs.
Some Jewish traditions believe that there will be a resurrection day at which time the sprit and body will be reunited. By contrast, Maimonides (1138-1204 CE) speaks of an entirely spiritual existence for souls as disembodied intellects, an existence that entails a heightened understanding and connection to God. Others believe that life continues through one’s descendants rather than in our own personal souls. A concept of heaven is often expressed in Judaism less commonly a concept of hell found. Transmigration of the soul (reincarnation) is not a general feature of Jewish belief although it can be found in Jewish mystical traditions. There is nothing in Judaism the equivalent of the wheel of samsara in Eastern thought. Judaism adopts a mostly dualistic view of the relationship of the soul to God but some mystical Jewish traditions come close to if not cross the line. Thus, other than the view that a soul and an afterlife exist, it is hard to find a consensus Jewish metaphysics on the fate of the soul after death.
Christianity
Jesus (6-4 BCE-30 or 33 CE) was a Jew and grew up in a Jewish family. His message was preached to other Jews. The central message of Jesus was that the kingdom of heaven is coming, change your ways now. On the subject of whether he was the son of God, his answers were equivocal. Jesus became Christ in the hands of the Apostle Paul. Paul had a series of mystical visions in which Jesus appeared to him after the crucifixion. These visions convinced Paul that Jesus was the son of God. At the time being Jewish in practice meant following the laws of Moses and circumcision. Circumcision was in particular a major obstacle to conversion of adult males. Paul simplified belief by saying that you don’t need to follow the laws of Moses, you don’t need circumcision, all you need to do is believe in Jesus. Although open to Jews, most converts to Christianity would be non-Jews (gentiles).
The original version of the New Testament was written in Greek some decades after the death of Jesus. Christians would adopt the Greek Septuagint as their version of the Old Testament. Around the 4th century CE Christianity would split into Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic traditions. The West would adopt Latin translations of the Old and New Testaments. From this time onward the basic texts of Christianity were “largely” set. The scholastics in Medieval Universities would combine biblical texts with the works of Greek philosophy and Christians would look to these texts as the central sources for information about the soul and the afterlife.
In the New Testament the Greek term “psyche” is used to refer to the Hebrew Nephesh. Psyche is commonly spoke of today as soul although at many (some would say most) times psyche in the New Testament is probably better translated as “life” or “lives” when referring to the individual. Indeed, it has been argued that in both Old and New Testaments, the individual is viewed from a more holistic perspective as one entity and not in the dualistic modern view of a physical body and an immaterial soul. It seems clear that Christian dualistic perceptions arose in as a result of influences from Greek philosophers which lead them to adopt a more Platonic world view.
Most Christians believe that the soul is nonphysical and immortal. There is a clear dualistic distinction between God and the human individual. St. Augustine (354-430 CE) would describe that he could look inside and see the soul and then look upward to see God. Plotinus could look inside and see the One, experience the One. That was a line Christians could not cross. When some Christian mystics like Meister Eckhardt (1260-1328 CE) came dangerously close, they would be accused of heresy.
What happens to the soul after death is not wholly agreed upon. Catholics believe the soul leaves the body at death, is judged and immediately transported to heaven, hell, or purgatory. Many Protestants have similar beliefs but do not generally believe in purgatory. Others would advocate a position that after death the soul moves into a condition known as soul sleep, the belief being that the soul is "sleeping" until the day of the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment. This view also sometimes called Christian mortalism has existed since the early centuries of the church and is considered a heresy by the Catholic church. Such views persisted in Protestant denominations. John Calvin (1509-1564) used the term soul sleep and some of the writings of Martin Luther (1483–1546) seem to endorse the concept although it is not clear that either Calvin or Luther fully embraced the idea. Modern Seventh Day Adventists endorse a view similar to soul sleep.
Views on the immortality of the soul are also not universal in Christianity. Based on statements in Ezekiel, Jehovah’s witnesses came to believe that the soul is not immortal and that it is only by God’s resurrection of the soul into a new body that life after death comes about. Some Jehovah’s witness literature even uses the analogy of the candle and the flame found in Buddhism (see Chapter 6). At death the individual is extinguished and no longer exists until the time of resurrection when God will recreate a soul for judgement. At the time of resurrection 144,000 individuals will be resurrected to be rulers under Christ in heaven. The rest will be resurrected into a worldly paradise established after the second coming of Christ. In this worldly paradise the souls of the unworthy will be given a second chance but if they are still judged unworthy, their souls will be destroyed. For the destroyed souls, there is no fiery hell or torment, only a grave of non-existence.
In describing the relationship between the individual and God, different Christian denominations place differing degrees of emphasis on the importance of acts vs. faith. Some place most emphasis on the importance of individual behavior being consistent with God’s laws and the teachings of Jesus. By contrast others place more emphasis on the role of faith, belief is what is more important. However, in understanding the relationship of the Christian soul to God, the concept of Grace also enters. Grace in this sense can be defined as an undeserved favor. Something that is freely given and cannot be earned. Free will is not enough. You can’t just do it on your own. You need God’s help. Sometimes Grace in Christianity takes the notion that God simply chooses who will be saved without any effort by the individual. Those who are chosen will naturally act in accordance with the laws of God. Others believe that the individual must turn to God first and ask for Grace. If that Grace is granted one will then be able to turn their free will to God.
Islam
Core Islamic belief is that there is no God but Allah and Muhammed (570-632 CE) is his messenger. Belief in a day of judgment and an afterlife is one of the six articles of faith in Islam. A Muslims’ last words should be a profession of faith which facilitates entry into Heaven or Jannah.
The Quran uses two terms “Nafs” and “Ruh”. Nafs is often translated as soul and Ruh as spirit. Within the Quran the terms can have different meanings in different contexts. Ruh can refer to spirit, knowledge, the Angel Gabriel, prophets or the soul inside the body. By contrast Nafs refers more to the self or individual. Nafs is when all the parts, the soul, the intellect are together in a body. Some Islamic commentators draw little distinction between the two terms and treat them as more or less referring to a single entity. Others consider the individual’s psyche more complex and composed of four parts: heart (Qalb), spirit (Ruh), self or ego (Nafs), and mind (Aql).
In Islam the individual has a single lifetime. This life is preparation and a test for what will happen after death. Allah chooses the time of death and will resurrect and judge every individual based on their deeds. Different Islamic traditions do not exactly agree on the sequence of events that happen after death. However, one frequently expressed idea is that an angel of death Malak al-Maut appears to remove the soul after death. The souls of the righteous are extracted quite easily while the souls of the unrighteous and unbelievers are extracted in a most painful way. A second common belief is that after burial, two angels (Munkar and Nakir) come and question the dead to assess their faith. Righteous believers who answer correctly become destined for paradise while disbelievers and sinners who answer incorrectly are destined for punishment. More elaborate descriptions of this process can be found.
Final judgement in Islam does not occur until a day of resurrection. Until that time souls inhabit a state known as Barzakh. The exact status of souls in that state differs by tradition. Some regard Barzakh as a state in which souls are sleeping and unaware. Others regard the Barzakh as a stage where after the soul is first extracted, punishment or reward begins depending on the soul’s final destination.
The timing of the day of judgement will be chosen by Allah. It may be preceded by signs of a disrupted world order including the appearance of a false Messiah. Trumpets will sound and the souls of the dead will be reassembled into bodies. There will be a process of judgment involving a book of deeds and the weighing of the good vs. bad deeds of the individual on a scale. If the book is placed in the right hand, the individual is destined for paradise (Jannah). If it is placed in the left hand, the individual is bound for hell (Jahannam). Judgement is followed by a procession to a bridge (Sirat). For those destined for paradise the bridge is wide and easily crossed. For those destined for hell, it is narrow and unstable; they inevitably fall off and devils drag them down into hell. Islam holds out the possibility that intercession by Allah may occur on the behalf of some sinners or that some may be rescued from hell after serving a period of time. The only exception to this sequence is that martyrs are generally thought to bypass the Barzakh and day of judgement and are directly transported to paradise after death.
Descartes
Descartes (1596-1650) is often considered the first modern philosopher and the most original thinker since Plato. Modern in that he was the first major philosopher to be extensively influenced by the new science and astronomy. Original in that he sought to reconceptualize the entire nature of our existence.
Descartes lived in a time when the traditional authority of the Catholic church was being questioned by the Reformation. There was a renewed interest in Greek skepticism which asserted that the possibility of human knowledge is limited. Skeptics argued that it is impossible for the human mind to know much about anything with certainty. The senses can be fooled by false sense perceptions and give different impressions of the same phenomena. Reasoning is always subject to logical errors. The Greek philosopher Pyrro (360-270 BCE) applied skeptical criticism to skepticism itself saying that it is not even possible to know what it is possible to know. This new Pyrrhonism as it would be called underwent a revival in the early 17th century.
Descartes takes skepticism and runs with it. He argues that the skeptics weren’t skeptical enough. He would apply a form of hyperbolic doubt beyond skepticism. Descartes starts out by asking what can I really know? I can’t trust the senses. The senses can be fooled by false sense perceptions or misinterpretations of sense perceptions. Our brains further impose interpretations on sense phenomenon. If you doubt this look at the fruit basket paintings of the Italian Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593 CE) where an image looks like a fruit basket in one orientation but turned upside down appears to be a face (https://mydailyartdisplay.uk/2011/04/15/a-bowl-of-vegeatbles-by-guiseppe-arcimboldo/). Dreams seem real enough when we are in them but then we wake and see that it was a dream. Descartes asks how do I know that I am not in dream right now? He says suppose there were an infinitely powerful being who set out to deceive me. He might confuse me causing me to make mistakes when even adding simple numbers. He might cause me to believe that I have a body when I have none. Why couldn’t such a being exist? There is no logical way to prove that such a being couldn’t exist.
After doubting everything that he can, Descartes decides that there is one thing that he can’t doubt. He can’t doubt that he has thoughts. Even if those thoughts are wrong, they are thoughts. When he thinks about having or not having a body, whichever it is, those are both thoughts. Even posing the question is a thought. This leads to the dictum “cogito ergo sum”, I think therefore I am.
Up to this point it is hard to argue with Descartes’s logic. The problem is where to go from here? Ok, I have thoughts but if I can’t trust those thoughts to mean anything, there is not much more that can be done. Skepticism must stop somewhere. Descartes next considers is there a way to know which thoughts are true? He decides that thoughts that are clear and distinct can be trusted. By “clear” he means self-evident. As soon as the mind sees it, the mind knows it is true. “Distinct” means it is a truth that depends on no other thing being true. Descartes acknowledges that there may be problems in deciding which thoughts are clear and distinct vs. which are not but nevertheless he believes that if one builds a sequence of ideas based on what is clear and distinct, it is possible to proceed and discover truths about the world.
With regard to the discussion here regarding the soul, Descartes will decide that thoughts need a place to reside. For Descartes that repository will be the soul which is independent of the body. The other important element in Descartes’ metaphysics will be God. Descartes will offer several proofs that God exists. God who is a perfect being created our mind and body. The physical world which includes the body has been set in motion by God according to the laws of nature (physics). Once set in motion the world of matter is independent and governed by the laws of physical science. The soul is not made of matter and does not occupy space. The soul for Descartes is where thoughts reside, and thinking is required for there to be a soul.
Descartes will regard the body as an automaton governed only by the physical laws of nature. Only humans as thinking entities have souls; animals are pure automatons. This distinction between mind/body or soul/body will be the basis of Cartesian dualism which influences Western thinking to this day. It had profound effects in Descartes’ own time. Cartesian dualism however created the problem of how do body and mind interact, since they are made of fundamentally different substances. Descartes would suggest that the soul is located in the pineal gland and from there it is able to interact with the body. This idea would not find much lasting support even among Descartes’ followers. Descartes’ mind/body dualism would be a source of anxiety to later Western philosophers who would propose both materialistic (only matter exists) and idealistic (only mind exists) solutions to resolve it.
References
Bertrand Russel, The History of Western Philosophy. Simon and Schuster Inc. New York, 1945.
Kenneth R. Seeskin, Platonism, Mysticism and Madness, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902449 (accessed June 8, 2024)
Douglas R. Campbell. Plato's Theory of Reincarnation: Eschatology and Natural Philosophy. The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 75, Number 4 (Issue No, 300), June 2022, pp. 643-665. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/rvm.2022.0021.
W. M. Coombs. Aristotle's harmony with Plato on separable and immortal soul. South African Journal of Philosophy 2017 Vol. 36 (4): 541-552. Accession Number: WOS:000422869000009 DOI: 10.1080/02580136.2017.1385951
https://iep.utm.edu/stoicmind/#:~:text=The%20human%20soul%20is%20a,Stoics%20contrasted%20soul%20and%20matter. (accessed June 8, 2024)
Marcus Aurelius, Mediations. A new translation with an introduction by Gregory Hays. The Modern Library, New York, 2002.
Paulos Mar Gregorios (editor) Neoplatonism and Indian Philosophy, State University of New York Press, 2002.
Plotinus, The Enneads. Translated by Stephen MacKenna, Abridged with introduction and notes by John Dillon. Penguin Books, London, 1991.
Byron Sherwin, Jews and the World to Come. June 2006. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/06/jews-and-the-world-to-come
(Accesses June 10, 2024)
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SOUL & SELF (RUH & NAFFS). YouTube Merciful Servant January 20, 2020. (accessed June 8, 2024). Best reference I found for disambiguation of the terms Ruh and Nafs.
(accessed June 8, 2024)
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