Soul in judaic and islamic traditions
Emma Jung - On the Nature of the Animus and the Anima & The Anima as an Elemental Being
Sabina Spielrein - Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being - TAKEN
Eros and Tanathos in Era of Artificial Intelligence - TAKEN
contribution to Atlas of Archetypes and Animal Spirits
Psychotherapeutic method / approach of Your choice
The Red Book - TAKEN
who am I
who are You
is this a course for You ?
credits (2 ECTS for >75% attendance, +1 for referat/experiment)
Hausarbeit possible
need help ? (tutor: a.terzieva@udk-berlin.de)
Leistungsnachweis
signature-related issues
Smartphone & Feedback box
Take a pen and piece of paper (or ask Your neighbor if You can borrow it)
Ask Yourself a question: "Does soul exist ?"
Wait a while (cca 3-5 inhale-exhale cycles)
Write the answer - either YES or NO - on the paper
Put the answer into feedback box
Vṛtti (वृत्ति) – Fluctuations of the mind (thoughts, emotions, perceptions); most dynamic and gross.
Saṁskāra (संस्कार) – Latent impressions or mental habits left by past vṛttis.
Manas (मनस्) – The sensory mind, coordinating input and response; "inner instrument" of perception.
Citta (चित्त) – The storehouse of impressions, conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind.
Buddhi (बुद्धि) – Intellect, faculty of discernment, reason, and decision-making.
Ahaṁkāra (आहंकार) – Ego-identity, the sense of "I am this body/mind/personality" & "I do this".
Aham (अहम्) – The primordial I-sense, pure self-reference, "the strange loop" symbol.
Jīva (जीव) – The embodied self, individual, distinct soul undergoing experience, transformation and change.
Ātman (आत्मन्) – The true Self, pure consciousness, transcendental soul, unchanging, infinite, witness of all.
Soul (ψυχή) often equated with life-force or breath.
"all things are full of gods" Aristotle, De Anima 411a7, quoting Thales
Heraclitus: the soul has a deep, unexplored structure and needs to be “kindled” like fire to become wise
Pythagoreans: soul is immortal and transmigrates (metempsychosis).
Empedocles and Anaxagoras introduce NOUS (mind) as a soul-like power.
No strict separation yet between physical and spiritual dimensions.
ΤΟ ΕΠΙΜΕΛΕΙΣΘΑΙ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΕΠΙΜΕΛΕΙΣΘΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΨΥΧΗΣ / To care for oneself is to care for the soul.
ΟΥ ΤΑ ΧΡΗΜΑΤΑ ΥΜΑΣ ΠΟΙΕΙΝ ΑΛΛΑ ΤΗΝ ΨΥΧΗΝ ΩΣ ΑΡΙΣΤΗΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ / Care not for your bodies or your wealth so much as for the best possible state of your soul.
the concept of EPIMELESTHAI ("care for one's self / care for the soul) is key concept of classical philosophical tradition
Aristotle’s theory of soul is grounded in hylomorphism, the idea that all living beings are composites of matter (hyle) and form (morphe).
The body is the matter, the potentiality.
The soul is the form, the actuality of a living body.
The soul is not a separate substance, but the essence that gives life and organization to the body.
The soul is the actuality of a body that has life potentially.” (De Anima, II.1)
Epicureans: soul is material, composed of fine atoms.
No afterlife: soul dissolves at death—no reason to fear it.
Stoics: soul is PNEUMA, a fiery breath pervading the body.
Soul contains HEGEMONIKON (governing principle) in the heart.
Ethics grounded in cultivating (EPIMELESTHAI) rational soul in accordance with nature.
Soul is a lower emanation from Nous (divine Intellect), which in turn comes from the One (the ineffable source).
Soul is the mediator between the intelligible world (Nous, Forms) and the sensible world.
Soul is partly divine but also linked to matter, and some souls descend too far and forget their origin.
The ultimate aim is the return (epistrophē) to the One via inner purification, contemplation, and ascent.
Soul (نَفْس, *nafs*) is a spiritual, immaterial substance.
Influenced by Aristotle, Neoplatonism, and Qur’anic revelation.
Avicenna: soul is simple, incorporeal, and individuated at creation.
Soul progresses through stages: vegetative, animal, rational.
Mystical traditions (e.g., Sufism) focus on purification of the soul.
Philosophical arguments for immortality and resurrection abound.
Soul is created by God and infused at conception.
Augustine: soul seeks rest in God; image of God within the soul.
Soul is immortal, destined for salvation or damnation.
Soul's faculties: memory, understanding, will (trinitarian analogy).
Union with God is possible through grace and charity.
Body-soul dualism often influenced by Platonic models.
Thomas Aquinas: soul is the form of the body (via Aristotle).
Soul has vegetative, sensitive, and rational powers.
Immortality of the rational soul is demonstrable by reason.
The soul subsists independently and survives bodily death.
Heavily influenced by Aristotle and Christian doctrine.
Debates on when and how the soul is infused in the embryo.
Renewed interest in Platonism and Hermetic soul cosmologies.
Descartes: radical dualism—soul (res cogitans) and body (res extensa).
Human soul seen as seat of reason, will, and self-consciousness.
Debates emerge over animal souls and mechanistic bodies.
Mystical and esoteric views on soul persisted alongside rationalism.
Soul increasingly tied to the concept of personhood.
Soul increasingly reduced to observable mental or bodily processes.
Locke: denies innate ideas—soul as tabula rasa, a passive receiver. Start of the NATURE / NURTURE debate.
Hume: rejects a persistent self; mind is a bundle of perceptions.
La Mettrie: human soul is an effect of bodily mechanisms (*L'homme machine*).
Diderot and French materialists view soul as an illusion of matter in motion.
Mind-body dualism increasingly replaced by monist materialism.
Soul is active, not passive—central to constructing experience.
Kant: we can never know "soul" as a thing-in-itself.
Fichte: ego (Ich) posits itself—soul as dynamic self-consciousness.
Schelling: soul and nature are aspects of the Absolute unfolding.
Hegel: soul partakes in Spirit (Geist), unfolding historically and dialectically.
Emphasis on development of the soul through culture and reason.
All matter possesses some form of experience or consciousness.
William James: stream of consciousness is continuous, plural, and lived.
Rejects both materialism and soul-substance dualism.
Radical empiricism: consciousness is a basic feature of reality.
Panpsychism redefines soul not as a separate entity, but as pervasive sentience.
Mind is not isolated; world is interwoven with subjectivity.
The four temperaments originate in Ancient Greek medicine.
Hippocrates (5th century BCE) proposed that health and personality are governed by four bodily fluids or “humors.”
Later, Galen (2nd century CE) systematized this theory and linked the humors to psychological traits.
Each temperament was thought to result from an excess of one humor: blood, yellow bile, black bile, or phlegm.
Though outdated medically, the four types—Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic—remain influential in personality theory.
Renewed interest in Platonism and Hermetic soul cosmologies.
Descartes: radical dualism—soul (res cogitans) and body (res extensa).
Human soul seen as seat of reason, will, and self-consciousness.
Debates emerge over animal souls and mechanistic bodies.
Mystical and esoteric views on soul persisted alongside rationalism.
Soul increasingly tied to the concept of personhood.
Soul increasingly reduced to observable mental or bodily processes.
Locke: denies innate ideas—soul as tabula rasa, a passive receiver. Start of the NATURE / NURTURE debate.
Hume: rejects a persistent self; mind is a bundle of perceptions.
La Mettrie: human soul is an effect of bodily mechanisms (*L'homme machine*).
Diderot and French materialists view soul as an illusion of matter in motion.
Mind-body dualism increasingly replaced by monist materialism.
Franz Joseph Gall proposed that mental faculties were localized in the brain.
Bumps on the skull supposedly indicated personality traits.
Phrenology gained popular appeal in 19th-century Europe and America.
Although flawed, it encouraged anatomical and neurological research.
Foreshadowed modern brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience.
Gustav Fechner studied the quantitative relationship between stimulus and sensation.
"psycho-physics is an exact doctrine of the relation of function or dependence between body and soul" (Elemente der Psychophysik, 1860)
His law: sensation increases logarithmically with stimulus intensity.
Considered one of the founders of experimental psychology.
Merged philosophy and empirical science through measurement.
Inspired later studies of perception and thresholds.
Hermann Ebbinghaus pioneered systematic study of memory.
Used nonsense syllables to avoid prior associations.
Identified the forgetting curve and spacing effect.
Demonstrated that memory could be studied experimentally and quantitatively.
His methods set standards for future cognitive research.
Romantic thinkers revived interest in dreams as gateways to the soul and creativity.
Inspired by positivist currents (e.g. psychophysics), some early psychologists (e.g., Maury) began recording dream content and sleep phenomena.The boundary between pseudoscience and emerging science of psychology remained blurred.
Dreams were still largely anecdotal and lacked scientific methodology.