A Round of Applause for Plant and Animal Souls - Page 2

Being Alive and a Principle of Life
In my mind, as admirable as this scientific list may seem, something seems to be lacking. Although it lists the ability to maintain a balance—homeostasis—among these attributes as a key element for survival, it does not explain what this ability really is. Wherein does it lie within the paramecium’s single cell? Where is it in the trillions of trillions of cells making up a giant oak or pine tree? Although it appears to be localized within the head or brain area of larger animals, where is it in planaria or amoeba?

But if the organization principle lies within every single cell of the living entity, still, what tells the oak tree as a whole when to make a root, a branch, a twig, a leaf? Certainly, it needs to maintain its balance, but what guides it to do so? What tells the tree that at a certain distance up its trunk a new branch should form here and not in another spot?

Furthermore, what tells the one-celled amoeba it is time to divide? What tells the eyeless single-celled paramecium to turn its body so it can pull in bacteria through a slit in its one side? What tells it to want to eat at all? Something oversees its desire to survive.

Farther up the developmental ladder are humans. Wherein is hidden the principle in human conception that tells two united sex cells when to divide and eventually form a zygote, an embryo, a fetus, a child? What’s more, was each half of this homeostatic ability within each parent’s egg cell or sperm cell?

The answer to these open-ended questions suggests that every sperm cell and every egg cell has the ability to join with its opposite in such a way that a guiding principle is passed on in this union.

Looking at all these questions seems to me to point to some kind of principle of life existing along with a living being that keeps it organized. Is it material? Is it spiritual and immaterial? Is it something paranormal? Is this what people commonly refer to as the soul? It seems that a number of scholars down through the ages agree with this idea even though modern biologists do not.

Aristotle’s Animal Soul
In 350 B.C.E., Aristotle (On The Soul) philosophizes about the nature of the soul. He claims that all existing things, including living organisms, consist of substance with a determining form. This substance has already trespassed from mere possible being because its form has given it reality. Thus, he claims the soul is that organizing factor which gives a natural body its organized, living actuality.

Article Author: Regis Schilken

Regis Schilken's stories reflect his search for meaning in a very human but frightening way. Three of his books have been published: The Oculi Incident, The Island Off Stony Point, and a third, You Know When was just recently released. …

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