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Has any philosopher shown that it is not?

Aristotle holds - that the soul is the form, or essence of any living thing.

René Descartes holds - that the mind is a nonphysical substance.

If we assume that:

  1. Spirit is eternal, at least relative to our existence
  2. and that any Body is known as such by its likeness to the static idea of it.

--> Then we are in the static part of our understanding of the world we live in - the Spiritual and Material sides of it.

As far as I know we can only observe two phenomenas - Materia and Motion. To me it appears logical that Soul is any motion, governed by the laws of Spirit and executed by Materia.

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  • Have you looked at Leibniz's [Monadology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monadology)? – labreuer Mar 08 '14 at 20:22
  • I think that you are using too much undefined concepts : solu, mind and Spirit, form one side, and Body and Materia from the other side. Descartes is a *dualist* : *body* vs *mind*. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Mar 08 '14 at 20:39
  • Is there any chance you could explore this a little further? In particular perhaps share a little bit more of the context and motivations of the question -- what you might have been reading that's made this seem important, what exactly you would like someone here to explain to you in a few paragraphs? – Joseph Weissman Mar 09 '14 at 02:23

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According to Transcendent School of Philosophy founded by Mulla Sadra, a 16th-17th century muslim philosopher, mental entities or spiritual forms that comprise human soul, contrary to material forms, are static. Material forms are subject to an inherent universal gradual motion taking on a different form at each instant after dropping their previous form, whereas human soul absorbs infinite number of forms during a lifetime without loosing the previously absorbed forms. Human soul is thus a constantly developing and expanding being. I recommend you to study this exposition of Mulla Sadra's innovative theory of human bodily and spiritual becoming: The Soul as Barzakh: Substantial Motion and Mulla Sadra's Theory of Human Becoming

You might as well be interested in this question and my answer where I also explain the metaphysical agent responsible for human development.

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Is the soul not eternal? Can the soul change? If it does then yes it moves. If it does not then it is static and motion-less.

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  • You have some bits right. Only soul is not motion or form - form and motion ARE SOUL. Soul is always first to whatever you do, its always THE source. So NON of the qualities are SOUL, SOUL creates those things (motion, world, idiots on forums) to manifest itself. – Asphir Dom Mar 11 '14 at 14:51