The Creation of Souls

The folk psychology of souls.

The present article examines how people's belief in an afterlife, as well as closely related supernatural beliefs, may open an empirical backdoor to our understanding of the evolution of human social cognition. Recent findings and logic from the cognitive sciences contribute to a novel theory of existential psychology, one that is grounded in the tenets of Darwinian natural selection. Many of t...

Rational Souls and the Beginning of Life

Our previous essay to which Robert Pasnau responds in his article ‘Souls and the Beginning of Life’, took issue with several aspects of his original discussion in Thomas Aquinas on Human Nature (hereafter ‘Aquinas’) of human ensoulment and of traditional Roman Catholic teaching on the matter of abortion and the value of human life. Our primary concerns were twofold. First, to provide readers, w...

The engineers of human souls & academia.

AIMS There has been recent concern about interactions between academia and the pharmaceutical industry. This article seeks to explore the basis for the current sense of crisis. METHODS The approach taken is a historical one, outlining the origins of the crisis. RESULTS The analysis outlines the roles that brands, patents, and the control of the scientific literature play in the current mark...

Souls and Sentientism

I am a psychologist and not a theologian, so I do not know what the word "soul" means. What matters to me is a creature's capacity to feel, to suffer and to be conscious; its sentiency, not its soul, is the bedrock of my concern. Let us proclaim this creed of sentientism: that anything, human or nonhuman, terrestrial or extraterrestrial, natural or man-made, that can suffer should be included w...

The All Souls Deuteronomy and the Decalogue