Alvin Plantinga - Can a Person Be a Soul?

Is a soul required to make a person? If there is no soul, is there no person? Almost all scientists and most philosophers find no need for a soul. Certainly, souls are not known to science. What arguments support a soul? Revelations of religions? But then souls are a matter of faith. Any philosophical theories?



Alvin Carl Plantinga is an American analytic philosopher, the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and the inaugural holder of the Jellema Chair in Philosophy at Calvin College.


Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[jabster]

Why doesn't he interview the thousands of people who had near death experiences..If anyone knows it would be them.

[himanshupatel]

Every living creature has soul, that's what's making them alive. Body and soul are independent to each other

[Life_]

Live a life that makes the quality of life better in any way and to lessen the suffering in this world, may it be tiny, large, or in between.

[dynamicloveministries]

In Christianity, the afterlife entails resurrection from the dead. A soul represents a living body. One must question the notion that souls inherently exist eternally. Scripture does not support this, and evidence is lacking. The Christian doctrine emphasizes resurrection as our sole hope for life after death.

[edwardlee]

Thanks for the Great discussion and enlightening. A boy, 3 year's old fully aware of himself, but very limited before his physical existence. Now, same person 70 years later definitely aware of himself all through his life, going through wars, love, lasting or ever changing, up and downs throughout the careers, definitely packed in his self awareness so much more. So, if we equates consciousness with soul, then consciousness grows with the life - time of the physical body （ material object）when the physical object expired, sadly goes everything. I hope a stronger argument would safe the day for consciousness.
Stay safe and healthy for soul sake.
Thanks again for the effort and keep up the good work.
From Hker worldwide

[rauldurand]

This interview is more than 9 years old.. and still interesting.

[quantumkath]

I like this because I am open to hearing all beliefs.

[browngreen]

My question is this: If the soul is immortal, why do we have a body in the first place? A body doesn't seem necessary if you have an immortal soul. It makes no sense.

[chayanbosu]

Lord Krishna says our existence consist of 3 levels 1.Gross body 2.Subtle body i.e. mind, intellect and ego 3.Soul .Now we are soul at our core and part, parcel of God who is supersoul.

[ptgannon]

What soul? What kind of rational discussion can you have when you assume the existence of the very thing you are discussing - unless you make it clear, right up front, that it's all hypothetical?

If there is a soul, it interacts with us very strongly, and yet Quantum Field Theory tells us with exceptional confidence that there are no god, devil, soul or ghost fields, forces or particles interacting with the things we are made of.

[hershchat]

Anymore, I am finding the occasional comment more interesting than the videos.

[williamburts]

In the dictionary soul is defined as " spiritual and immortal part of a human being " so the word soul is a term used to signify " essence " and what we are in essence are entities that are knowers and enjoyers. I exist, and to know that you exist you have to be conscious that you exist. It is this knowing that you " be " or " am " that makes you an entity. The statement " I am this body " translates to " I am conscious of this body " so knowledge is the property of a conscious self not a insentient body.

So it is personal awareness that makes you a person not your body. What makes the conscious self spiritual? Answer: The material experience is of three objective states ( wakefulness, dream, and deep sleep ) that are of a mind-body connection and by being the observer of these states that come in succession makes the self an " eternal in the now " existence that contrast the ever changing material drama that it observes thus it experiences time objectively not subjectively within itself.

Since change and deterioration is not of it's nature it transcends anything that time dwindles over time. So the self transcends body, mind, and intelligence. So in truth there is a duality between body and soul and it is "self" that is the cause of there being a duality thus it is the essence ( soul )

[rc]

there's undoubtedly a distinction between living and inert structures and throughout history many great thinkers have tried to conceptualize that difference in one way or another... in our present, technological advancements are providing better ways to probe this mystery with either creation of an artificial life form or preservation of a living body... success in either one of these directions will be a major step forward in identifying that difference...

[jairofonseca]

Obviously, every living being is a Soul, that is what Soul means.

[-by-_Publishing_LLC]

The word "soul" is superfluous / unnecessary. A physical body, a brain, and a consciousness make up the entirety of a "person." Each person is an information-collecting, information-processing, and information-disseminating device that operates as a single unit. Currently there are over 8 billion human "units" processing information on planet Earth along with over ten quintillion less-complex "units" (animals/insects) that are all doing the same.

There is no "USB drive" (soul) that you can remove and claim that it is separate from the human body. Everything about you is integral. Sure, you can lose your body and your mind, ... but the information you produce over the course of your lifetime never goes away, ... _nor do you!_

_"What happens in existence stays in existence."_

[carminefragione]

If a Person describes a behavioral mystery defined by a Name, then the Soul is a House for the Name. It is a complexity of a behavior assigned to a proper place of it's appearing. Person is from Latin "Persona" meaning a "Mask" and explaining that an Actor on a stage assumes the identity given to the actor by the Divine Playwright, and so the actor may be a different sort of person on other terms, but on assignment, under force of direction, an actor on a stage must give a faithful good attempt to fulfill a script written. So Jesus said he came to fulfill what was written of him. Person is a character in a story, and if the Story Teller is a man, a "Human Being" then his behavior as a Soul changes according to the performing arts, he must be all and do all, though he is one man, he must speak about God, speak as God and then speak for all the People to make his story an oration that brings applause by the audience. It presents good reason to assert the Holy Trinity as THREE PERSONS but the behavior arises out of a ONE BEING. 3=1

[rajendrarajasingam]

If we can accept the presence of universal consciousness--divine conscious energy, I can't understand why we reject the existence of . soul . Soul is identical to universal consciousness but with limited potential .Rebirth. Near death experiences are some factors we have to consider before we reject its existence.

[ralphmunn]

I'm compelled to say that I find this just as uninteresting as any other baseless surmise. Mr. Plantinga seems to be starting with a conclusion and making up "I can imagine"s to support it, despite the glaring lack of evidence.

It seems to me that the entirety of our human consciousness builds a perception of reality to which we are central, and the concept of our own personal nonexistence is accordingly unimaginable to us. Thus, I believe, arises the concept of some non-corporeal part of ourselves which survives our obvious and inevitable death and rotting away in the ground.

I'm no philosopher or scientist, yet I find this common inability to appreciate and accept the temporary nature of our existence to be nothing if not sad.

[peweegangloku]

Genesis 2:7 shows that we humans are the soul. It says: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." And Ezekiel 18:4 indicates that we, the soul, do die. It states: "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Therefore nothing lives inside us called soul. We are the soul. And Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going."

[jasonb]

Thank you for uploading this. I’ve wanted to hear a brief summary like this from Dr Alvin P