This lecture is part of a course from The Great Courses called Mind-Body Philosophy taught by Professor Patrick Grim, Ph.D.. This course and over 300 other courses can be accessed with a subscription to Wondrium.
In this lecture Professor Patrick Grim, Ph.D. outlines the complex history of the soul in Western philosophy and religion. Starting with its roots in Homeric literature and Greek philosophy along with the Old Testament, Dr. Grim demonstrates how early conceptions of the soul differed from what would become more modern conceptions in thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and St. Augustine which emphasized a dualistic approach between a temporal body and an eternal soul. At the end of the lecture Professor Grim marks some thinkers who led to a decline in the discussion of the soul in philosophy and psychology, including Rene Descartes and William James.