Spirit and Soul?
Soul, like spirit, is another word we use with gross imprecision. We use it as if we all know what it means even though we have no general consensus on the meaning of the word.
Many use it to refer to an invisible substance in us humans wherein resides our ability to think, feel, and will. Many also attribute to soul the animating aspect I attribute to spirit and deem it eternal.
As such, our soul somehow enters our body for the duration of our life and escapes when we die. Some believe that after death our soul either ascends to heaven for eternal bliss or descends to hell for eternal damnation. Others believe that our soul reincarnates multiple times until we earn escape from the cycles of reincarnation.
Many seem to use the word soul in a dramatic but superficial way for its emotional affect. It can make the user seem profound, deep, and "spiritual."
Soul is primarily a religious or "spiritual" term and has little if any role in a scientific view of living beings.
If I use it at all, I do so with the sense that James Hillman gives it. In his view, our soul is our perspective. To have a soul is to have a perspective. As such, soul is a function of our mind.
I have little use for the word. It does no work in Thumotics.
In Thumotics I use spirit to refer to that which makes alive, mind to refer to our cognitive function, and body to refer to our physical being.
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