2006-12-19 05:09:00 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
The soul is whatever part of you persists after the end of your ego, be it energy and/or matter. It obviously cannot be one's consciousness (not conscience, which is a sense of guilt and morality), because consciousness is located in a physical organ: the brain. Damage to the brain changes consciousness, so when the brain dies, so does the recognizable self. If the soul is persistent, which almost all who believe in souls agree upon, then they must logically accept that it is not one's ego or consciousness, but a state which exists outside of form, i.e. energy.
2006-12-19 05:20:33 · answer #1 · answered by Lao Pu 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OK - the Catholic 'Thomas Aquinas' answer - a soul is the substantial form of prime matter. A form is what gives anything substance - what makes it what it is. All beings that are material have substantial forms - animate and inanimate. The difference between these is the level of autonomy their form is capable of - clearly a frog is more autonomous than a stone. Man is the most autonomous because he has a rational substantial form. It is this rational aspect which enables the human form to continue living after the prime matter dies. The conscience is that aspect of rationality which judges our own actions - it is a part of the nature of rationality to be able to reflect on itself. The conscience must be informed or it cannot make sound judgments. There are other views of the soul - in modern Catholicism these would be people like Descartes, or Teilhard; Hinduism is a bit like Cartesian Duality. Anyway, the Thomist one is the official version of the Catholic Church.
2006-12-19 14:05:46 · answer #2 · answered by sharbleitis 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think your conscience tells you the rights and wrongs of decisions you are trying to make while your soul is where the results of those decisions, for right or wrong, reside. If you follow your conscience and make a good decision, your soul is joyful. If you make a bad decision, you feel regret, guilt or sorrow in your soul.
2006-12-19 13:37:44 · answer #3 · answered by AmyU 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with Lau Po. Soul is what is the real you. it can be in your nail and it can be in your heart. It's something without which u r not urself. It's something u cant take away and say "its still me".... Its something if taken away from you, you cease to be yourself.
Conscience is just a state of mind, a pure one, which thinks and thinks abt things that u do.. and if they good or bad.. moral or otherwise.
2006-12-19 13:26:56 · answer #4 · answered by NYC GIRL 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Conscience: a mechanism of thinking that polices your desires and impulses against your understanding of society´s rules.
Soul: It is a magic thing that has wings and flies up to heaven when you die. Then it transmogrifies into you as a person. You learn to play the harp and toady up to God even more than you did on earth.
2006-12-19 13:12:40 · answer #5 · answered by Pastor Sauce 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋