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Myth or Reality-Does the Soul Exist?

How many times have we stopped to ponder over the question of what life is all about?

Anyone who rebuffs the idea of reflecting on human existence either takes life for granted or he

or she lacks the philosophical insight and keen perception required to delve on such a thought-

provoking subject. However, there is a particular point in life which no one can deny, and that is-

confronting death which is inevitable. Most religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and others,

rest on the concept, with slight variations, of the soul transcending the body after one dies. It

lives on and reaches out to eternity. As a matter of fact, the belief in immortality of the soul dates

back to the Ancient Greek Period where all the great thinkers spared their valuable thoughts on

this issue. To the question of whether they were unanimous in their belief or not, it would be

most appropriate to assert that either to agree with the concept or to refute it, they surely did

express their valuable thoughts on this issue. The theme of ‘Immortality’ is dominant in Greek

poetry, which reflects the idea that it is the soul that gives animation to the body. This concept

goes back to the sixth century, and even before. The idea of immortality conceived by the ancient

philosophers has an important place in most religions. The mystery of birth and regeneration

compels a person to submit to some kind of faith. Religious minds put their faith in the

omniscient and the omnipotent, thus making it easier for them to understand and adjust with the

impregnable mysteries of nature and the universe at large. From the layman’s point of view, I

would say that the soul occupies an important place even in our everyday life, but we are not

really aware of it. ‘Music that touches the soul’ is far from hard-rock and heavy- metal music. A

‘soul-mate’ means more than just a fun-loving and cheerful friend. What does it signify? Even

without realizing it, the conception of the soul evokes a sense of reverence in our minds.

Unconsciously, we are placing the soul on a lofty height, and at the same time asserting the fact
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that the soul transcends the body. Nevertheless, whether the immortal soul lives within the body

and keeps it alive till it stops breathing and then moves on, or whether the soul is trapped in the

body and has no existence outside that frame is a controversial issue and will remain so till

eternity because the mystery encompassing nature and its inhabitants are beyond human

conception. This is what necessitates a belief in the unknown and the unseen.

Plato is among those philosophers who established the idea of the soul’s immortality. To

give a clearer picture of this philosophy and to explain how it works, Plato uses the emblem of a

chariot drawn by two horses, one servile, and the other unruly. Plato gives a tripartite picture of

the soul (Payne). The soul is seen as being constituted of the rational thinking element,

represented by the charioteer, a motivating willful element, the obedient horse, and a desire-

generating appetitive element, the rebellious horse. Plato’s philosophy asserts that the rational

element falls from the state of grace and is dragged down into the business state by the disorderly

appetites. A corresponding virtue is attached to each element of the soul. Wisdom is linked with

the rational element; courage is associated with the willing element; and temperance, meant to

keep the appetites controlled, is attached to the appetitive element. With practice, temperance

and courage gradually fall within the patterns of habit formation. By cultivating good habits, and

through proper guidance of appetites, one can filter out everything that is unhealthy and desire

only what is good. Wisdom is acquired through insight. Plato sees virtue as an embodiment of

the three parts of the soul functioning as they are expected to. The soul in its virtuous state is

controlled by the rational elements, the philosophers. The willing element, the guardians and the

military class, carries out the policies of the rational leader with obedience and courage. The

appetitive class, the businessmen, functions within the restraints put down by the rational leader.

What results is that on one side is a temperate business class that keeps the community in mind
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as regards the question of profit and on the other side is the virtuous business class that thinks in

terms of the state. By means of his sagacity, Plato has offered his view-point on the nature of the

soul and how it functions. In the light of what Plato has explained, what one can deduce is that it

is the soul that moulds a person’s character and builds up his personality. Plato has divided

human beings into classes: ‘There are three classes of men: lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor,

and lovers of gain’ (Plato). As far as other sages of that era are concerned, all of them did not

accept the same logic and conceived the soul with a different notion, as their wisdom allowed

them to see it.

Aristotle’s concept of the soul has a scientific flavor as it rests on biology and

metaphysics, and takes into account substance, form and matter. He does not see the soul having

immortal existence. His conviction is that the soul is something living within the body and has

no separate entity. In ‘On the Soul’, Aristotle declares that outside the body, the soul has

nowhere to go. He tends to see things in their actuality and was not in favor of believing in

abstractions which, he thought were nothing more than a creation of our imagination. It would

be quite justified to say that Aristotle’s rational power, his sense of reasoning and his logic go

against religious belief and could hurt the sentiments of those who find solace in putting their

faith in the abstract and the unseen. Aristotle’s conception of the soul gives it mortal

characteristics, and sees it perishing with the body in which it had found its place. According to

him, the purpose of the soul is to give the body motion. In asserting the soul’s ability to make

things move, he has shown plants and animals as having a soul. He places the plants at the lowest

level as they are stationary, and though they are nutritional, a characteristic belonging to the soul,

and have the ability to live, breathe and grow, they are deprived of the sense of reasoning and

rational thinking. Animals are placed slightly above the plants as they can move and are sensitive
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and aware about their surroundings, but they too are not rational beings. Humans are put on the

highest pedestal as they have the highest form of rational qualities. He claimed that before a

human being learned to feel, he had developed the power of reasoning. The soul is an

embodiment of reason and is spurred into action by a sense of purpose. The soul, by its power of

locomotion, triggers the body to manifest itself in the given surroundings. As reasoning puts a

check on emotions, the physical part of a human entity has been given importance. Radical

popular belief may somewhat agree with his philosophy to some extent, but the concept could be

a sensitive issue for the traditional, conservative and religious mind.

.Those among us who think we are just physical beings, subject to death and decay, have

the notion that we only have a mortal state, and with bodily death, everything is over. They

totally reject the idea of the soul’s immortality and its journey to eternity. These radical thinkers

get so carried away by their logic and reasoning that they do not know where to stop. This is one

of the prime reasons why there is so much unrest in the world. What, with religious extremists

and fanatics at loose, is the world coming to these days? One of the reasons, I think, is the

modern man’s daring tendency to challenge even the mystical and the spiritual realms. As for

myself, the utterance of the word ‘soul’ gives me the feeling of something pure and sublime. If

we had accepted the fact that death ends everything, we would have nothing to look forward to.

It could also break the harmony and discipline in our life. There is a kind of solace in the idea

that the soul moves on. I think, consciously or unconsciously, all of us who believe in God, in the

Day of Judgment, in Heaven and Hell, in life hereafter, will hesitate to trespass into the spiritual

realm. After all that has been said and done, once in a while, the question that could be seen as

blasphemous to a strictly religious man does crop into the human mind, or in Aristotle’s term,

the human brain- Does the soul exist?

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Works Cited

Davidson, A.L. Aristotle: On the Soul.<http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/psyche.htm>

Lavine,T.Z. (1984). From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest. New York: Bantam

Books.

Payne, W. Russ. Plato<http://personal.bellevuecollege.edu/wpayne/plato.htm>