Does the Soul Exist?
Since some people do not realize it quite clearly enough, it is necessary to demonstrate briefly that every human being has a rational soul. Some deny this truth, convinced that human beings consist only of their bodies.
A good argument is the following. Only the human being manages to think of objects outside its own body and to meditate upon things it does not see. Furthermore, the human being reflects upon its own reasonings, judges and chooses the most logical set of reasoning. Anyone trying to be objective must realize that human intelligence is distinct from the senses: it evaluates their perceptions, it remembers them and it shows to the senses what is the best thing.
The eye is able to see, the ear to hear, the mouth to taste, the nose to smell, the hand to touch. But to decide what must be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelt, is not the task of the senses but of the soul and its intelligence.
Another argument may be convincing. Why does the human being think of immortality if the body is by nature mortal? And how can you explain that often it will be willing to suffer death out of love for virtue?
Athanasius
Against the Heathen, 30ff. (PG25, 61)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
Is the Soul Immortal?
The body is moved by the soul and is animated by it from within.
The soul is not added to the body as one stone cast next to the other, nor are the two mixed together. If this were the case, the soul would be made up of parts, and it would not be intrinsically one and simple.
The soul, however, is simple and consequently immortal.
Just think, what is it that suffers corruption and dies? Answer: that which is made up of parts which exist in a state of tension with one another, tending to divide themselves up. The soul, since it is not composite, is indivisible in its very nature, and therefore it cannot suffer corruption: in other words, it is immortal.
Maximus the Confessor
Treatise on the Soul (PG91, 355)
The Dignity of the Soul is to do Everything According to Reason
Many arguments can show that the soul is rational. In the first place, it was the soul that invented the techniques that have so many benefits for life. If these techniques are so useful, if that which is useful is praiseworthy, and if that which is praiseworthy conforms to reason, then it follows that our soul is rational.
Moreover, let us think of the senses. They are not able to understand things: their perception is insufficient, indeed they can be deceived. The senses, which are irrational, generate a false perception of things in us. We must therefore think in the following way: are things understandable or not? If they are, it must be another faculty that is more able than the senses to penetrate to the reality of things.
Now, things are understandable, as we can see by the fact that we use each thing according to what it can do. But if things are understandable and the senses judge falsely because they are irrational, it must be the mind that discerns all these things and that grasps what they are really like. The mind is the rational part of the soul. Conclusion: the soul is rational.
The dignity of the soul consists in doing everything according to reason.
Maximus the Confessor
Treatise on the Soul (PG91, 359)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
