De Anima

David K. writes,

I need some help.  I have been exploring the concept of the 'soul' over the last few months. I've meant it to be a fairly wide open review.  I have 'rounded up the usual suspects' philosophically and worked my way through a great deal of the biomedical writings.  Presently, I am in the middle of two works:  The Soul of the Embryo by David Albert Jones and Soul Machine by George Makari.  I am looking for a contemporary philosophical treatment of the topic.  I have searched the categories on both your blogs but wonder if there is a direction you can point me to as well.   

With pleasure, David.

For a high-level contemporary treatment by a distinguished philosopher of religion, I recommend Richard Swinburne, Are We Bodies or Souls? Oxford UP, 2019.  The Soul Hypothesis, eds. Baker and Goetz, Continuum 2011, is a collection of essays by analytic philosophers. For a hard-core old-time  Thomist treatment, one that is probably not quite in line with your current interests as a medical doctor, but still highly relevant given your Catholic upbringing, take a gander at  Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting and the Immensity of the Soul (no bibliographical details in my copy!).  More relevant to your biomedical interests is Norman M. Ford, When Did I Begin? Cambridge UP, 1988. 

Directly relevant to your concerns is  the mercifully short Were You a Zygote? by G. E. M. Anscombe. Also of interest is Erich Klawonn, Mind and Death: A Metaphysical Investigation, University Press of Southern Denmark, 2009.

I'll add further titles if they occur to me. Comments are enabled  if anyone wants to make suggestions.

Finally, here is a review by Thomas Nagel, no slouch of a philosopher, of the Swinburne volume mentioned supra.

Comments

[DBagwill]

Body & Soul: Human Nature the Crisis in Ethics , J.P. Moreland.
https://www.amazon.com/Body-Soul-Nature-Crisis-Ethics/dp/0830815775

I've passed my copy around to a few friends, and it's been well-received.

[BV]

Thanks, Dave. Good choice.

[Ingvar]

Maurice S. Rawlings (b. 1922, d. 2010)

A book he wrote:
Beyond Death's Door, 1979

Rawlings was a Medical Doctor (he was President Eisenhower's cardiologist).

One observation Dr. Rawlings had was patients that die and are resuscitated and that had hellish experiences while dead, are very clear about the hellish experience on the spot (the surgeon is right there so he gets an 'earful') but visited later the patient will have forgotten.

[BV]

Thanks, Ingvar. There are plenty of others who don't forget their hellish experiences. And there are plenty who report heavenly experiences.

Here is one of my posts re: the latter: https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2012/10/is-heaven-real-a-neurosurgeons-near-death-experience.html

[Aaron K.]

I would highly recommend A Brief History of the Soul by Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro.

https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Soul-Stewart-Goetz-ebook/dp/B00GDFJ192/ref=sr_1_1?crid=AUYHT3LDP8OP&keywords=a+brief+history+of+the+soul&qid=1649569372&sprefix=a+brief+history+of+the+soul%2Caps%2C355&sr=8-1

I think this concise book would be right up David's alley. I especially enjoyed chapters 6 and 7 which deal with how the postulate of souls relates to contemporary science, and provides a response to some of the more common philosophical objections to the existence of souls.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book, Bill, if you ever get your hands on it.

[BV]

Aaron,

Thanks for the recommendation. The book looks good.

I may order it. Time was when I didn't have enough money for books; the problem now is not enough house.

David K.,

Buy this book, doc. You can afford it. MDs rake it in, and you're married to one!

[David K]

Thank you all. I am awaiting delivery of a copy of A Brief History of the Soul.