Examining the Concept of the Soul

In this compilation, the authors begin by discussing the various theories on primitive soul-beliefs propounded by anthropologists and scholars of religion from the 19th century to the present day. While cultural evolutionism largely fell out of favor after the mid-20th century, theories on the origins of religious phenomena have made a recent comeback with the cognitive study of religion, which takes a largely evolutionary psychological approach to explaining beliefs in the supernatural. Next, the authors seek to understand Aristotles noetics within his psycho-physiological account of the human being. If its possible to argue for the embodied nature of the soul and of most of its affections, Aristotles claim about the separability of νοῦς from the body is notoriously puzzling. Lastly, this book discusses Goethes was familiar idea of a widely inhabited universe and the subject of the souls cosmic voyage, showing that Mans relation to the universe is strictly connected to Mans development at the microcosmic level.