The interconnectedness of the body and soul makes complete sense. To think the body is just added to who we really are and not part of who we are seems arbitrary and gnostic.
However, in the analogy of the soul is to the body what sight is to the eye, one wonders how sight can exist apart from the eye… Is the soul merely an emergent phenomenon of the body? I would tend to think it is more of a vivification of the body. That wouldn’t seem to change their connectedness and the importance of caring for both through both.
"Merely?" That's the question. Sight can't exist apart from the eye. Can the soul exist apart from the body? This is a question I can't solve. The ability of the intellect to grok forms, which are eternal, is suggestive but not determinative. I know Feser has a book on this. Personally I wouldn't believe in immortality of the soul unless God told me to, which he does. Nevertheless, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body seems almost necessary, once you think through the relation of body and soul.
The interconnectedness of the body and soul makes complete sense. To think the body is just added to who we really are and not part of who we are seems arbitrary and gnostic.
However, in the analogy of the soul is to the body what sight is to the eye, one wonders how sight can exist apart from the eye… Is the soul merely an emergent phenomenon of the body? I would tend to think it is more of a vivification of the body. That wouldn’t seem to change their connectedness and the importance of caring for both through both.
"Merely?" That's the question. Sight can't exist apart from the eye. Can the soul exist apart from the body? This is a question I can't solve. The ability of the intellect to grok forms, which are eternal, is suggestive but not determinative. I know Feser has a book on this. Personally I wouldn't believe in immortality of the soul unless God told me to, which he does. Nevertheless, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body seems almost necessary, once you think through the relation of body and soul.