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RE: Steemtopia #5: Relationship Between Body and Soul
I don't think there is a soul-- or as Winston pointed out that great Watt's quote, that we are just a soul.
I like Ken Wilber's Eternal Witness idea.
Our consciousness and identity is constructed through narrative, perhaps the soul is the story that narrative weaves. Who is listening though?
I kinda see it the other way around (again, just my take) in that the ego/consciousness/self-identity are the narrated story and the soul being the thing that started and keeps the story going.
While I'm open to the possibility of there being no soul, I find the discussions to end quickly. To me it's sort of like describing a pitch black room.
I love these ideas though, makes me think on sides of the topic I might not otherwise.
My answer varies depending on the day you ask.
Today though, I'm feeling incredibly reductionary. The consciousness is self-organizing and arises from the meatsuit and the interactions of neurons. When you die, it stops. We can sugar coat it make ourselves feel better about being finite, fragile, beings but I think it is in our detriment.
I think the addition of made up parts (the soul) actually detracts from how freaking amazing what's actually going on is... that our ancestors survived and evolved and along the way acquired the ability to formulate abstract thought and perceive themselves.
I can understand perspectives varying, honestly it paints a more inclusive picture on a topic.
While I can see survival behaviors being based out of biology, I have a harder time explaining evolutionary wise how people spend their free time (non-survival based) including things like creativity in music/art/poetry/etc, scientific/mechanical inspiration, Play/Flow (state of optimal experience), or others that biology doesn't seem to be as big of a factor. We still can feel restless when our creativity is stifled, yet it is irrelevant to our physical body. (I'm just thinking outloud here, feel free to disagree.)
I don't disagree, but I don't have a hard time explaining them. It's like a big cloth, black on one side, white on the other. Death on one said, Sex on the other. The two primal motivators for biological lifeforms. More complex forms as we begin folding the cloth back and forth. Add in social dynamics and the folds become more intricate. Feedback loops arise. Yes, it's magnificent. Yes, it seems otherworldly, but it really isn't.
We don't need metaphysics. This reductionary thinking, or as I prefer to think of it 'systems thinking', shouldn't rob the world and humanity of its splendor. It merely presents it in the light of Reason.