From reading this chapter of the book "From the Soul to The Mind," one is faced with the need to understand the functionality of human beings externally and internally. While it is evident from various discussions and arguments from theorists that the inside controls the physical body, there is the lingering question: what is the essence of the being that controls the life of a person? This question is significant as there have been various answers to it by uncovering facts about the human being.
It raises the need to find out which part between the heart and the brain is responsible for being alive or dead. In his argument, Plato says, "the psyche is the essence of the human being, and this essence is infinitely present in occupation" ( Jeeves & Warren, 2009 ). Mainly, Plato introduces a critical point of view that introduces the soul in the discussion of the being. Plato suggests that the person is made of the psyche, which is the mind that can be described as the conscious and the unconscious. According to this argument, the brain does not appear to be important in the decision-making process. The soul is responsible for thinking, and it continues thinking even after the person is dead, meaning that the mind is a subject of the soul.
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Many theorists have, on various occasions, referred to the soul as the essential determinant of life, including Socrates. This view places the soul as an intangible essence that is not located anywhere in particular. However, suggesting that the soul is responsible for thinking Plato's theory underscores the inability to make the right decisions as a matter of character and not the functionality of the brain. On the other hand, the Christian view of the soul is that it is the core determinant of life as opposed to the scientific belief that the heart and the brain determine whether the being is alive or not. According to Hebrew and Christian teachings, God breathed life into the man ( Lee, 2017 ). This statement first confirms that the soul is not located anywhere in particular and that it is responsible for the existence of the being without which the body remains as an empty vessel.
Human behavior is controlled by various factors that are external to the body and that the organization may have little or no control over. It is essential to ask, what informs the difference in human behavior? Most individuals cite the brain as the source of decisions of the human being and thus suggest that the brain's destruction could affect how one behaves. This assumption explains why people who have suffered injuries in the brain act unconventionally in what psychologists refer to as mentally ill ( Boeri et al., 2018 ). There are disagreements about these arguments, especially since students of Socrates, like Plato, considered the soul to be the determinant of how one behaves.
Various other arguments are consistent with Plato's analogy of the mind and the soul. The bible teaches that "when the body dies, the soul will be judged for wrongs committed." This argument continues to mention that the soul will burn in eternal fire or live forever in heaven, which suggests that the soul is responsible for what the body does ( Lee, 2017 ). Therefore, whether one behaves conventionally or not is a matter of the soul. Also, the bible connects the soul to the heart by saying that what comes from the heart reflects one's character. This fact could mean that the soul is not only a determinant of the behavior, but it is localized in the heart as well.
One of the critical discussions is on the significance of the brain functionally in human beings. What is the role of the brain? In recent years, scientific findings have argued that the functions of the brain include controlling memories by storing and allowing retrieval, regulating speech, and movement as well as the functions of other body organs ( Jeeves & Warren, 2009 ). Scientists had previously objected to this argument. For instance, there were claims that the role of speech was localized in the throat as opposed to the current scientific beliefs that the Brocas area of the brain controls speech formation.
In most scientific and nonscientific arguments, it becomes clear that the brain does not function on its own and that all other organs are connected to it. For instance, Rene Descartes suggested that "the soul is connected to the brain at the pineal glands" ( Jeeves & Warren, 2009 ). Additionally, Thomas Willis proposed that the location of the soul was in the corpus stratum, which confirms that indeed the brain is connected to this essence of the being. However, the Christian view opposes this argument with more reference to the mind and the heart rather than the brain. The bible particularly suggests that a man is what he thinks, and this assertion, if linked to the scientific argument, could indicate that the mind is an integral property of the human being and functionality ( Lee, 2017 ). However, the mind is not tangible, but it is a property of the brain. What is more agreeable is that despite the heart and the brain is essential, they all depend on each other.
In conclusion, from this discussion, it is clear that there are additional properties, such as the mind and the soul. While it is unclear where the soul is located, there have been arguments that are localized in the heart or the brain. None the less, the mind is a property of the brain and is responsible for behavior as affected by the environment.
References
Boeri, M. D., Kanayama, Y. Y., & Mittelmann, J. (Eds.). (2018). Soul and mind in Greek thought: psychological issues in Plato and Aristotle (Vol. 20). Springer.
Jeeves, M., & Warren Jr, B. (2009). Neuroscience, psychology, and religion: Illusions, delusions, and realities about human nature . Templeton Foundation Press.
Lee, P. (2017). DNA, brain, mind, and soul according to Christian Teaching. Studia Bioethica , 10 (3), 20-23.
