The Purpose of Life ; and The Origin and Evolution of the Soul PDF Download

Author: Louis William Rogers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Life
Languages : en
Pages : 48

View

Book Description

Author: Simona Ginsburg
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262039303
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 665

View

Book Description
A new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition from organisms that lacked consciousness to those with consciousness—to minimal subjective experiencing, or, as Aristotle described it, “the sensitive soul”? In this book, Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka propose a new theory about the origin of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the transition to basic consciousness. Using a methodology similar to that used by scientists when they identified the transition from non-life to life, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest a set of criteria, identify a marker for the transition to minimal consciousness, and explore the far-reaching biological, psychological, and philosophical implications. After presenting the historical, neurobiological, and philosophical foundations of their analysis, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose that the evolutionary marker of basic or minimal consciousness is a complex form of associative learning, which they term unlimited associative learning (UAL). UAL enables an organism to ascribe motivational value to a novel, compound, non-reflex-inducing stimulus or action, and use it as the basis for future learning. Associative learning, Ginsburg and Jablonka argue, drove the Cambrian explosion and its massive diversification of organisms. Finally, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose symbolic language as a similar type of marker for the evolutionary transition to human rationality—to Aristotle's “rational soul.”

Author: Tim Freke
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
ISBN: 1786780712
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 288

View

Book Description
THE EMERGENCE OF SOUL, MEANING AND IMMORTALITY The grand religious stories that gave meaning to life and death in the past have crumbled under sceptical scrutiny. The dominant mainstream philosophy is now scientific objectivism, which describes a universe that exists for no reason and a life that ends in oblivion. Pioneering philosopher Tim Freke addresses the "soul crisis" in modern culture that has arisen from lack of meaning. He offers an intelligent "spiritual" perspective on life and death to help us make sense of a paradoxical world, which is sometimes bleak and banal, but also can be magical and full of significance. He presents a revolutionary paradigm shift in our understanding of reality that integrates the deepest insights of science and spirituality to create a new model of human identity, which makes the idea of the immortal soul intellectually credible. He explores the process of evolution, not as blind chance, but as the momentous story of the self-realising universe. The development of the material world has led to the emergence of "psyche" or "soul," which you are experiencing right now as a stream of thoughts and images that don't exist in space and aren't made of matter. We are not insignificant specks in a vast purposeless cosmos. We are significant participants in the magnificent and meaningful story of soul. The universe is coming to know itself through each one of us and this process doesn't end at death, because the evolution of soul has also been the evolution of immortality.

Author: Peter Malcolm
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780646190105
Category : Cosmology
Languages : en
Pages : 341

View

Book Description
This non-religious book reveals and describes the timeless program of the soul from its first incarnation on earth as animal-man. It then traces the many stages of personality development, leading to the third and final phase wherein the individual treads the path of spiritual return back to their Source and the ultimate achievement of their magnificent destiny. This history reveals that when the soul or Self was first formed, it was in a dormant, seed-like condition. Its inherent faculties were all potential but not yet actual, and its awareness was in a vague, dim dreamy state. Mankind therefore was originally little more than an animal with a few dimly sensed but higher feelings. During repeated cycles of incarnations on earth and being planted in the school of material life, the impacts of the environment beating against consciousness gradually evoked the awareness of the soul, and the struggle to survive in a difficult and often hostile environment, so its powers and capacities began to unfold. As the soul's awareness of its own God-like nature awakens, so it comes increasingly into conflict with its savage, instinct-driven animal-man scaffolding, that was initially necessary for its survival on the earth. As the seed-like Self increasingly penetrates consciousness and develops its abilities and creativity, so people evolve out of the animal-man stage in which they are just one of a herd and become more individual and therefore different. This creates the conflict of personality development, and this is the evolutionary phase in which mankind is now engaged. This chronicle of the fundamental stages of the plan and purpose of the soul then goes on to describe the third phase of treading the steep and narrow path of self-knowledge. This finally leads to conscious union with the fully grown and unfolded soul, and culminates in the sublime attainment of Self-realisation and cosmic or God-consciousness, which is the ultimate purpose of human life on earth.

Author: Stewart Goetz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444395920
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 195

View

Book Description
This book is a clear and concise history of the soul in western philosophy, from Plato to cutting-edge contemporary work in philosophy of mind. Packed with arguments for and against a range of different, historically significant philosophies of the soul Addresses the essential issues, including mind-body interaction, the causal closure of the physical world, and the philosophical implications of the brain sciences for the soul's existence Includes coverage of theories from key figures, such as Plato, Aquinas, Locke, Hume, and Descartes Unique in combining the history of ideas and the development of a powerful case for a non-reductionist, non-materialist account of the soul

Author: Otto Rank
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801872372
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 184

View

Book Description
In his last years, Otto Rank turned his lifetime of thought and learning toward two of the most difficult topics in human history: religion and the soul. The result was this now-classic work, available in this new, very accessible English translation. Unlike many other intellectuals of the twentieth century, Rank maintains a place for the soul rather than dismissing it as a fantasy. The soul and the beliefs about it, he argues, set forth the foundation for psychology, with its complex analyses of consciousness, self-consciousness, and personality. Rank's commentary is not limited to beliefs about individual souls but includes ideas about group souls, sometimes encompassing nations or generations. Rank suggests that it is in expression of group beliefs that the idea of the soul attains its greatest power.

Author: Richard Swinburne
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 346

View

Book Description
Although humans and animals have evolved from inanimate matter, both have a qualitatively higher mental life, one of sensation, thought, purpose, desire, and belief. This thoughtful study, written by a major figure in philosophical theology, argues that these mental states, while interacting with the body, are distinct from it--they are the states of a soul. Swinburne examines the various parts of the mental life, the concept of soul (both human and animal), and the products of the human soul: logical thought, moral beliefs, and free will.

Author: PAUL LAFARGUE, CHARLES H. KERR
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 138

View

Book Description

Author: Christophe Finipolscie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780995649156
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 314

View

Book Description

Author: N. C. Andersen
Publisher: Forgotten Books
ISBN: 9780260580429
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 206

View

Book Description
Excerpt from Evolution of the Human Soul and the Future Life Scientifically Demonstrated It is to expose these errors that this book was written and to show that evolution is susceptible of no other than a theistic interpretation. The fact of organic and mental evolution points to a divine origin of mind and life on this earth. The soul of man is a self-existent entity, and an important, indeed indispensable, part of the universal spirit, and it will live forever in an individual form to eradicate superstition, to demonstrate the only true and living God, the universal spirit, the God within our selves, the immortal soul. This is the object of our work. The evolution of the human soul is just as real as the evolution of the body. From the structure of the organ ism of man, his physical, intellectual and psychical, can science only solve the problem of the soul of man and a future life. Evolution is a philosophical science applica ble to all phenomena whether physical, mental or psychi cal, whether manifested by material atoms or dynamic energy of the soul. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.