Meaning of the Word Soul

[A N Other 0]

I have been more intensively studying Rand, Aristotle and Aquinas over the last year. All three use the word "soul". The only entry in the Ayn Rand Lexicon regards the Soul-Body Dichotomy.

Does anyone know of any Ayn Rand discussion of the meaning of the word "soul"?

[Betsy Speicher 0]

I have been more intensively studying Rand, Aristotle and Aquinas over the last year. All three use the word "soul". The only entry in the Ayn Rand Lexicon regards the Soul-Body Dichotomy.

Does anyone know of any Ayn Rand discussion of the meaning of the word "soul"?

Ayn Rand uses the word to refer to the faculty of consciousness.

[A N Other 0]

A related thread in the Ayn Rand Lexicon is Psycho-epistemology and I think that concept comes closer to the meaning of "soul" expressed in common usage. I haven't read Aquinas yet on the subject but my educated guess is his discussion will focus on the immaterial, "immortal" idea associated with all religion; they seem to want to divide consciousness, maintain some discontinuity within human consciousness. I have been reading Aristotle's usage but not yet seen a definition.

I am becoming inclined to use the word to refer to a man's psycho epistemology. I am working to overcome a lifetime of poor, ineffectual mental habits (and other habits) such as rand warns about in her discussion in "The Comprachios" and the depth and strength of habit continues to astonish and sometimes dishearten me. Yet, a great deal of mental processes must be, yes, correct and appropriate to context, but also automated if one is to function with any facility in complex situations. Most people, I think - I do - spend a lot of time functioning at that level and I think the word soul is a good usage to describe the psych-epistemological, sense of life based person must people encounter in most interactions.

Isn't it focus on some particular aspect of a another person that makes significant encounters with other people significant? By the same token, it is possible that an accurate appraisal of the whole person, made in an instant - Hank Reardon's first sight of Dagny Taggart on a construction sight - is a function of the "soul", later to be appraised in detail as needed by the mind?

Well, thanks for your thoughts; working at it!