The Human Body As An Embodied Spirit
The Human Body As An Embodied Spirit
The Human Body As An Embodied Spirit
In the course Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person, one of the prominent
concept is the idea that the human person is an embodied spirit. The human person is the point where
material and spiritual entities merge. It is important to understand the specificity of the human person
as an embodied spirit because it enables us to know our feasibility and limitations, it also exposes us to a
profound and vast understanding of ourselves as a distinct creature united by body and soul.
Plato argues that in the condition of the nature of the human person, the body’s existence is
dependent on the soul while the soul is independent on the body. And Plato believes that the soul is
confined inside the body thus when the body dies, the soul survives because it is immaterial, immutable,
and indestructible. There are three parts of the soul according to Plato, to wit, the rational, spiritual and
appetitive souls. The rational souls guide the spiritual and appetitive souls and is located in the head
while the other two contribute to the motility of the whole person.
Rational souls grow, reproduce and most importantly it is capable of thinking. According to
Aristotle, the highest level of soul, the rational soul, is present only in humans. Humans withhold all the
characteristics of all animals and is able to think rationally. Man is a rational animal as Aristotle would
say.