From: "Richard Baker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Pat said:
> The ones I have met have each had their own soul, and from all accounts,
> that's even true of conjoined twins. The rule may be, one soul per
> functioning head.
How can you tell the difference between something that looks like a
person and has a soul and something that looks like a person and doesn't?
Rich
That gets us into defining the difference, if any, betweem :"soul",
"personality", and "mind." Does a lifebonded "soulmate" type married
couple have one soul between them? All I can say is that thet were all very
clearly different individuals to me.
As for the "something that looks like a person" and doesn't have a soul, I
think the answer would have to be if they are capable of making a free moral
choice, even on the level of a small child. This is, of course, absent
coercion, which introduces other factors.
You read about the sort of sociopath who appears to have no understanding
whatsoever of morality. And please let's not digress into the various forms
of morality or contrasting "morality = 'following the rules' vs 'what's
moral when the rules are wrong' unless you want to terach a graduate level
course in ethics here! Let's say, no understanding of either rules *or*
toddler-level human kindness. At any rate, these sociopaths are often said
to be soulless.
People with mental or neurological disabilities and differences that keep
them from understanding ordinary morality almost certainly have souls,
because when they can be brought to understand, and/or to the extent that
they can understand, they show the sort of feelings ordinary people have,
which gets us into the insanity defense and what happens when the person
(for example) goes back on their meds. Or why, when the child understand
that "kitty is hurting just like you do when someone pinches you," they rush
to hug and kiss and apologize to kitty. In fact, some people in that
position have more tender souls than the rest of us!
I'm going to go with a definition that starts with free will (understanding
always that it is never 100% and always modified by external factors) and a
sense of how one does or does not treat one's fellow human beings. I was
going to say 'fellow sentient beings" but that involves a level of
understanding usually informed by culture.
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