The Human Soul and its Implications
What are you as a human? (concluding part)
Summary of the section: ‘What are you as a human’?
Over the last 6 posts, we’ve been looking at the question ‘what are you as a human?’ - thinking about the human brain, mind, consciousness and soul. In short, these posts have highlighted that mental states (states of the mind) are distinct from brain states because mental states have ‘properties’ (/ characteristics that belong to them) that brain states don’t have; and if there is something true of M that is not true of B, M is not the same as B. I identified two of these properties - that (certain) mental states have qualia, and some have intentionality (see ‘what are you as a human?’ post 4) - and so states of the brain are not the same as states of the mind, and so the brain is not the mind (and the mind is not the brain).
Having spelled out in others posts that your mind is the conscious part of you - the centre from which you experience, and act on, the world - latter posts went on to show that this centre of consciousness / mind is non-physical - it is immaterial / spirit. The arguments from your unity of consciousness (post 5) and your identity persistence through time (post 6) gave reason to think this is so. Further reason might be added by looking at the evidence from Near Death Experiences (NDEs) - a topic to be explored maybe another time,1 but when considered alongside the arguments for the Unity of Consciousness and our Identity Persistence through Time, such NDEs may give further potential reason to think that your core and centre of consciousness is an immaterial soul (or to use another term, its a ‘spirit’). So fundamentally, you are made up of a human body and soul (/ spirit) - the soul interacting with the brain and body to experience and act on the world.
So What?
Knowing that the essential you - your core and centre of consciousness - is a soul (/spirit) that interacts with your body, has major implications for all kinds of things: for our understanding of the world / reality, for thinking about what a person is - and so for related ethical questions such as the issues of abortion and euthanasia, what happens to you after you die, your spirituality; these are just a few of the questions that are effected by the realisation that we are human bodies and souls (bodies and souls that are [in ordinary condition] united - functioning as a holistic unity).
Lets just take the first one of those - our understanding of the fundamental nature of the world. If there is an aspect of our human constitution (‘what we’re made up of’) that is non-physical / spirit, then the world is not just physical. Contra the narrative we often hear, the world is not just comprised of physical atoms (with the natural sciences being able to explain everything there is) because we’ve seen that humans - the most advanced biological creatures on earth - have non-physical souls. So this means that the (world)view sometimes described as physicalism (or ‘naturalism’) is false - the world is not just made up of atoms but also of (human) spirits - the world is not just physical. But of course if there are human spirits in the world, might there be other kinds of spirits? With naturalism exposed as false the door is opened to asking such questions. Now the slight danger of this door being opened (and what naturalists are so concerned to guard against) is that all kinds of ethereal, spiritual (and naturalists would then add ‘mythical, legendary’) spirit beings might be postulated and rational thinking go out the window in favour of superstitious speculation. But if the world is more than just physical, it is at least possible that there are other spirits, not just human spirits. Now whilst this post isn’t the place to think about all the questions that come out of this possibility, it does make one consider their worldview more thoroughly.
A worldview that has a place for spirits?
The existence of human (and other?) spirits defies the naturalistic worldview but by contrast their existence sits very comfortably within a theistic worldview - one that affirms that behind everything that there is is an ultimate, supreme Spirit. Indeed, in the monotheistic faiths, a number of the characteristics of the human spirit are shared with the characteristics of this supreme Spirit - God - in that God is an immaterial soul/spirit/mind - a self-conscious being - who (the variety of Scriptures teach) created the immaterial (and material) world - so the spirits in the world derive their being from this God and have a pertinent place in the world. Indeed, through the doctrine(s) of creation the monotheistic faiths affirm and have a full place for the physical as well as spirit worlds - the two being intimately bound, particularly in the Christian faith through affirming the incarnation of this supreme Spirit/God in human history.
So through just looking at one of the implications mentioned above, it becomes apparent that the existence and nature of the human soul / spirit has major ramifications for our thinking, beliefs about, and living in the world. The implications for areas such as personhood, ethics, what happens after we die, spirituality are further areas that are affected through understanding the fundamental nature and constitution of a human. Coming posts may give some further exploration to these topics, but in conclusion to this section of the blog (‘what are you as a human?’) the evidence considered in these posts tells us that your soul is the core essential you - your spirit and centre of consciousness; And holding to such an understanding gives us reason to reject naturalism and to consider more fully a worldview that affirms both the spirit and physical worlds, as those brought into existence by God, the supreme and ultimate Spirit.
This is quite a big area (and may be the topic for posts in the future) but such evidence comes from the accounts patients give of conscious experiences they had during the time they were clinically dead - accounts they recount after they’re resuscitated. Scientifically, the most verifiable of these accounts are those where the patient’s brain activity is monitored throughout the time they are clinically dead - a reliable EEG showing that their brain is offline - but they later narrate details after resuscitation about their conscious experience (had during the time they were lying dead [and monitored by the EEG]) that they couldn’t possibly have known had the conscious experience not been real (for instance what was happening in the hospital cafeteria / on the hospital roof during that time). Where such details can be verified, this gives further evidence that the core, essential human - our ‘self’ / centre of consciousness - is not physical (because the physical body was lying clinically dead whilst the person was having this conscious experience) but immaterial - the conscious experience being had by the person’s soul (/ spirit).