Sorry for the short response, Arminius. I don’t know if other animals have souls; but, since I believe in evolution, which could include the property we call soul, I suspect other mammals have something similar. Humans appear to be the only animal that can project the soul to something outside itself. , i.e., to an entrapped entity that eventually survives the prison body.
I believe the human psyche is composed of mind, body and soul. We are a trinity of MBS.
I believe the psyche is not much more than the soul. Mind is much more than psychology. Both mind and body have not much to do with psyche and psychology. But soul has much to do with psyche and psychology. Like I said:
The English word “soul” and the German word “Seele” stand for the Ancient Greek word “psyche”, and that is correct. Whether we believe in soul / Seele / psyche is another issue. And:
Now you have told me that humans “appear to be the only animal that can project the soul to something outside itself, i.e., to an entrapped entity that eventually survives the prison body” (Ierrellus). How can humans do that?
Belief is empty without reason.
It’s odd that you should choose three things. when two would do./
Or how about “spirit”? What happened to that?
how about mind body and psyche…
psyche same as soul or spirit…
Consciousness as we know it is informed by mind, body and soul. It is not some abstract entity; neither are its constituents.
Psychology involves interpretation of mental content; if mind is something more or different, we can’t know it. About the projection statement–most Christians believe with Plato that the soul is trapped in the body until death releases it.
Uh, what’s your name - forgot it… 
Define trapped?
So, are you actually saying that the soul resides within the mind - since it is our minds at times which are capable of trapping us, seemingly having the capacity to take away our freedom.
I don’t know if we have a soul or not - can’t prove eternity so can’t prove we have a soul but there was a time when I believed that I kind of felt that the soul whatever it may be resided outside our bodies surrounding it like space does.
It depends on the definition and interpretation of “consciousness”.
It depends on the definition and interpretation of “consciousness”.
It depends on the definition and interpretation of “psychology”.
We can know it. “Even” the ancient people had a relaltively high degree of knowledge about it. The currently valid definitions and interpretations are more eyepollution than eyewash, more brainpollution than brainwash, thus they are mostly not correct.
Yes. But how can humans appear to be the only animals “that can project the soul to something outside itself, i.e., to an entrapped entity that eventually survives the prison body” (Ierrellus)? And why?
It’s all just word salad though, really.
Arminius,
I can’t speak for other animals. I got my distinctions between us and them from Walt Whitman’s poem about animals in which he notes that they do not bow down to some sky deity or to each other, Humans do both. IMHO, the human deification of the soul, at the expense of mind and body is in error. We are trinite.
I am still not clear ier about your concept of soul…
It may be the superego. I believe the soul is that part of us that can see beyond self-gratification and can encompass empathy and compassion. It sees beyond survival of mind and body.
but the superego is part of the mind…
It may be the superego. I believe the soul is that part of us that can see beyond self-gratification and can encompass empathy and compassion. It sees beyond survival of mind and body. It is that part of ourself that can see what is other as significant and worthy.
So what if the superego is part of the mind. We see through the mind.
ier what do you mean by see through the mind…
Can you think of any other way we interpret reality?
Ierrellus,
I don’t know much but I would be quite disappointed if the superego were the soul (if we have one). I thought that the superego was that part of us which for instance is not capable of humility, that part of us which is narcissistic, et cetera.
I would think that the soul would have to be something kind of set aside/apart from our natural personalities and characters.
Something so deeply moving within us which moves without our awareness and knowing, quite mysteriously, but which we might at times experience like a small whisper or the gentlest of touches. lol
I love words but they at times can seem like my enemies. So difficult to describe certain things…how they can elude us. Who can really describe something which might not even exist yet might still.
Interpreting reality is one thing, creating a fantasy world of your own desire is another.
According to Freud, the superego is the “ethical component of the human personality”. (Ency.Brit,) Thus my suggestion that it is another name for soul. I would not separate soul from personality. I’m not into these ephemeral definitions of a basic part of who we are. It is not narcissistic. Wonder and awe are our reactions to what we do not fully know yet. There is no mystery, only ignorance of what reality can entail.