What does it mean to have a soul? Religion and philosophy alike exist to answer this question. We are going to approach it from a logical standpoint and I hope you enjoy the journey. Understanding this subject is the foundation to numerous topics of study. Enough with the introduction, lets get started!

It starts with a seed. At face value, it can look like any dead chaff blowing around. Once planted though, a change takes place. The question at this point is what causes the change? It will pull the right amount of nutrients from the soil and build a structure of a certain kind. So you have the structure, the proper application of nutrients and a certain plant that is going to be built. Who directs all of this from deep inside a seed? We see chemical reactions that build crystals, but it is ridiculous to compare the stacking of energy charges to something that gathers, reproduces and grows into a complex structure of a certain kind. The Greeks believed that anything that starts out simple and gathers nutrition to conform to a certain image must have a soul. A soul is the leader that orchestrates all the complex processes to make something alive.

In the 19th century, there was a fascination with electricity and microscopes. In the same ways that uncivilized man tried to explain life by equating it with familiar things such as trees, the sun or the moon, scientists tried to dismiss all life as the product of an electric charge on a single cell. Either way is too simplistic to explain the complexities of life as we know it now. We can only observe and document the habits of certain forms of life, but the origin and destination of each soul escapes us. A soul will come and do its job and then leave. Once the soul leaves, the form it built will decay and go back to the earth.

This is a good starting point for philosophy where we want to explain what is observed. When describing the soul of most plants, there is little sensitivity or mobility, but it has the three properties mentioned above. A soul in an animal is more developed, has instincts and perception. The soul of a humans has all of the above yet has the addition of advanced reasoning and character. Virtue is the word used when the raw material from life is organized into the best form possible. A beautiful flower from a seed is considered virtuous and we can say the soul did a good job. A healthy adaptive animal would be considered virtuous. This can be applied to human behavior; when raw emotions are combined together with circumstances and knowledge to form good character it becomes virtuous. This is one of the complex functions of the human soul; studying the habits that get us there is what this site is about. I hope that understanding the concept of souls and virtue will make it easier to figure out what I am talking about in the future.