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The Soul Hypothesis: Investigations into the Existence of the Soul Paperback – December 16, 2010

by Mark C. Baker (Editor), Stewart Goetz (Editor)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
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What do we mean when we speak about the soul? What are the arguments for the existence of the soul as distinct from the physical body? Do animals have souls? What is the difference between the mind and the soul? The Soul Hypothesis brings together experts from philosophy, linguistics and science to discuss the validity of these questions in the modern world.

They contend that there is an aspect of the nature of human beings that is not reducible to the matter that makes up our bodies. This perspective is part of a family of views traditionally classified in philosophy as substance dualism, and has something serious in common with the ubiquitous human belief in the soul.

The Soul Hypothesis presents views from a range of sciences and the resulting big picture shows, more clearly than could a single author with one area of expertise, that there is room for a soul hypothesis.

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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Continuum
  4. Publication date
    December 16, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1441152245
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1441152244
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Baker and Goetz have assembled an impressive interdisciplinary team of scholars to address questions about the existence and nature of the soul. The book is unique is combining philosophical and scientific arguments for dualism, and the result is a rigorous, exciting, persuasive presentation of the issues. The Soul Hypothesis is an excellent text that is sure to provoke a vigorous dialog about its content. I highly recommend it." -- J. P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Biola University, USA, and author of Consciousness and the Existence of God (Routledge, 2008)

"Sooner or later, the contributors to The Soul Hypothesis warn, scientists will pinpoint the exact three neurons whose firing accompanies the thought of our deciding to make a phone call or, if you prefer, deciding to get up and get a beer from the refrigerator. As ever more such micro-couplings are observed, we will-so scientists tell us with unseemly glee-gradually come to see that our cherished conscious life is nothing but a long series of electrical impulses, not an autonomous realm of free will and free thought. [...] The book's contributors set out this scientific challenge fully and engagingly, but they also expose its fallacies.The Soul Hypothesis performs yeoman service in rescuing the human capacities for consciousness and voluntary action from scientific challenge." -- The Wall Street Journal

"The Soul Hypothesis is a refreshingly open-minded collection of new essays, all of them philosophically and scientifically well-informed, demonstrating that soul-body dualism is far from being a defunct hypothesis and, indeed, is in many respects more promising than any of the forms of physicalism that have come to dominate western philosophy in recent decades. It is unusual in approaching its topic from a wide variety of angles, including those of linguistics and modern relativistic and quantum physics. Without ever sacrificing rigor, the contributors set out their case for the soul in a clear and accessible way, which will make this volume exciting reading for both specialists and non-specialists, whether their background is in philosophy, science, or theology. The editors do a first-rate job of tying the essays together and providing a general framework for understanding the key issues at stake." -- E.J. Lowe, Professor of Philosophy, Durham University, UK.

About the Author

Stewart Goetz is the Ross Frederick Wicks Distinguished Professor in Philosophy and Religion at Ursinus College, USA. His previous books include The Soul Hypothesis (co-edited with Mark Baker, 2011), A Brief History of the Soul (co-authored with Charles Taliaferro, 2011), The Purpose of Life: A Theistic Perspective (2012), The Routledge Companion to Theism (co-edited with Charles Taliaferro and Victoria Harrison, 2012), and A Philosophical Walking Tour with C. S. Lewis (2015). He is the Series Editor of Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy and Religion.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Continuum; 0 edition (December 16, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1441152245
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1441152244
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Sotto voce
    5.0 out of 5 stars Release the hounds!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2011
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    The Soul Hypothesis opens Pandora's Box. The title stirs an ideological call to arms . From the introduction through 9 extraordinarily thorough essays and ending in the author's afterword, the intellectual potential here is positively electric. 'The self makes choices and this is not of the science of the body' ... there will be lightening and there will be thunder. I can simply envision no other outcome for this collection.

    The authors `hypothesis' is that the soul exists and can be rationalized against the `no-soul exists' onslaught of the scientific literati. The 9 essays present their independent cases from evidences and postulations. The book's authors adroitly weave the essays into a substantial argument. Were that it could be so simple! For this scientist and believer, the case that is made is compelling. I confess that I am positively biased toward the hypothesis and so the arguments comport with my worldview. The Soul Hypothesis throws down the gauntlet with a reasoned and technical rationale for the 'body + soul' proposition vice 'body only' materialistic-scientistic proposition. It will be interesting to see if the no-soul/no-god reader will desire to pick up the challenge.

    The Soul Hypothesis trolls the leading edge of physics, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and linguistics to postulate common points of reference in the matter of "soul" ... yes, no or maybe. Then, between religious faith and rational science. This common ground for discourse, the soul ... yes or no ... will of course be impossible to reconcile the 'no-god required' scientific mind with the spiritual, however, the certainty of the no-soul/no-god proponent will be challenged. Perhaps the 'soul' is compellingly new neutral ground as the authors subscribe. I hope the author's expectation of wide scientific acclaim is properly postured. The authors and essayists are well aware that there exists a domain far more challenging then pagans. Pagans at minimum possessed an intellectual construct of the soul. The 'no-soul/no-god required' worldview is wholly new in human history and broadly emerging in this century.

    For the Christian of scientific training and an apologetic propensity, the collection is a mandatory read. I need all the intellectual ammo I can get to confront the challenge from within science. The Soul Hypothesis delivers a superb grid to raise the debate to a new level. The work is an "air drop" into hostile territory.

    The book is an academic, footnoted read. It is well written. The target audience is probably narrow because it is an academic product; however, the Soul Hypothesis is by no means a conceptually dense read. The good news for the author's is that I will recommend it to colleagues and even buy a few for particular hard core cases. Five stars!
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  • Out-Rider
    4.0 out of 5 stars The soul lives in the brain for daily application.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2017
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    A good discussion, but not valid as scientific appraisal of religion. Religion is in the brain, this has been pretty clear to many if not most religious people, and in fact is the whole point of Christians relying on the Holy Ghost, who is one aspect of the trinitarian divinity, entering the human person directly -- through the brain circuitry. There is a deep lack of insight or misunderstanding that applying science means that "the brain does religion." Not so, but the human being in religious practice relies on the brain. Should we not be curious how it does this? This is not a specifically Christian treatise, there is no mention of the Sermon on the Mount, which is the best textbook on the daily reality of the soul, not an hypothesis. For this reason, there will not be much of a demand for the book from the majority of religious Americans. Jesus only comes up when discussing insane people. For me there is no question that my soul lives in my brain and does not know it will ever come to an end. My soul is eternal, even if my body decays and, as Jesus has explained, no more work can be done. But, the soul has a chance to enter the kingdom of heaven as He taught us in the Beatitudes. This is the start of a valid treatise of the soul. The chief function of the human soul is to partake in the infinite grace & mercy of God on a daily basis.
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  • Charles Wenzel
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mind expanding
    Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2011
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    I am obviously late to the game. I didn't realize that it had almost been lost because the "town's folk" didn't even realize there was such a game in progress. What is "common sense" to John Q Public is inadequate to defend within the rich contending thoughts among the philosophical professionals. It's not even necessarily that our generic "arm chair" conclusions about the nature of our expereince are wrong but that undefended, they are readily swept off the battle field of ideas by those with an active material-reductionist agenda. Then you wake up one day to find that while neither you or your friends and acquaintances believe what's counter-intuitive {and not necessarily so}, we're surrounded by the few--strategically positioned throughout the culture--who do.
    These 9 essays are not so much a collage to stimulate our thinking about our metaphysical nature and how it manifests in experience but an unfolding teaching in order to BETTER think about such issues.
    Some of the essays--or parts of them--are technical, but the over-views which introduce each one provide the context in which to "gain ground" as you read. Building up into a cresendo--rewarding you for your diligence and interest--the final 2 essays and the afterward put you on terra firma from which to marvel at the possible "How" that the Creator gave man and animals a soul.
    No knowledge is ever complete, for like our long march through this world something is always bieng stirred up, yet the information in this book at least has let me see what all the fuss is about.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Una Veritas
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book Exploring issues of the soul
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2013
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    It seems like a great book. Some of it gets pretty technical especially in the chapters that dive into the scientific relation of the mind/soul to the brain. The neurology and biology went a little above my head. But that is generally how I like reading; if you understand it all, then you aren't learning anything. My only qualm is it is that the book and all of the article adopts a one-sided view; The author/editor acknowledges this up front, but it is not a "lets argue this out" kind of book. All in all, it was a good buy though.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Bruce Higgins
    2.0 out of 5 stars Written For Scientists
    Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2018
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    I had a misunderstanding of what I was getting into with this book. I thought it was going to be a general discussion on if there is a soul. It is a discussion of the soul/mind, but seen through the eyes of scientists who address it in terms of their field. If you buy this then be prepared for a detailed discussion of various theories in neuroscience, linguistics, theoretical physics, philosophy, and others. This is not for the lay person.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Neil W.
    1.0 out of 5 stars A sad book proposing the abandonment of scientific investigation
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2012
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    This book claims to address the "failure" of science to explain the origin of consciousness and the nature of the mind. This project is based on a basic misunderstanding of science, since science is an ongoing process and does not announce final failures - consciousness and the mind have "failed" to be explained in the same sense that eclipses, the origin of species and the nature of gravity were once examples of scientific "failure" and that dark matter, the nature of unobservable dimensions and the Cambrian explosion continue to be. In truth, the real nature of this project is half-heartedly revealed in the Afterword - the authors of the collected essays are all Christians, so they're (quite understandably) trying to reconcile their already-firmly-embedded belief in a soul with the real world. After all, if there's no soul, the whole basis of Christianity is seriously undermined. The rest of the book has been fairly thoroughly cleaned of all references to the Bible, with the exception of the very occasional Biblical quote and some comments on how busy God must be making souls for polyps in the later chapters.

    So what is the proposed solution to this "failure"? Well, the suggestion by the authors is that we give up trying to understand these things and give them a label instead - in this case "soul". This "hypothesis" is necessarily vague, since the proposed soul is a non-physical thing, which interacts with normal matter in a way which has yet to be detected, although the last essay and the hilarious chapter 6 (heavily borrowing from Deepak Chopra) make some suggestions. The authors are mainly in the "God of the gaps" camp, arguing that since there is no comprehensive scientific explanation of consciousness and the nature of the mind, God must have inserted these things into humans (and possibly other animals), although they carefully tiptoe around any mention of God. Sometimes they take this to extremes as in "no explanation has been given, or indeed can be given, for the fact that our states of conscious awareness correspond even approximately to the world" and "This problem [qualia] is beyond the explanatory scope of cognitive science and neurology" - they are claiming to already know the limits of science and that the answer must be God. The author of chapter 4 rejects this idea, arguing instead that, since our common-sense understanding must be correct (!), there must be something going on besides the biological stuff in the brain.

    Strangely enough they don't apply this approach (just give up investigating and make something up) to other as-yet-unsolved problems in science like those mentioned above - maybe the "Holy Ghost Hypothesis" to explain dark matter is the next in the series. Why not? Why bother trying to understand anything when you can just "hypothesise" an immaterial thing which "explains" it? If humanity had adopted this way forward we would never have made it out of the Stone Age. The "soul hypothesis" is really just a way of throwing up our hands in despair and invoking magic instead of trying to explore, understand and explain natural phenomena. Personally, I'm delighted that the scientific and philosophical community have largely rejected "God did it" as an explanation for anything and continue to push the boundaries of our understanding instead.

    This sad book deserves to be shelved with those which explained bad events as witchcraft and illness as an imbalance in the four humours.
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