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To: biblewonk
We have no way to prove that a living adult has a soul and a spirit let alone a living sperm/egg combination.

The soul is the form of the body. Its' existence can be known with certainty.


86 posted on 02/28/2003 10:38:20 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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To: Aquinasfan
The soul is the form of the body.
In terms of Aristotle's four causes:
Body: material cause of a living organism.

Soul: formal cause of a living organism.

Soul: efficient cause of a living organism. (All substances that exist by nature are self-moving; living things are natural substances; therefore, living things are self-moving. To accommodate for plants, self-movement is not limited in meaning to change of place (locomotion), but includes change of quality (alteration) and change of quantity (growth and decay) (De Anima, 415b23-28)).

Soul: final cause of a living organism. (The soul is that in whose interest everything is, or is done, in a living organism (Cf. Ibid., 415b20). For example, wisdom is excellence of reason; reason is a faculty of the soul; therefore, wisdom is excellence of soul.)


288 posted on 02/28/2003 2:25:06 PM PST by eastsider
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