Overview

This interdisciplinary work examines the significant though often implicit role of soul in modern psychological discourse and human experience, challenging its apparent obsolescence in contemporary scientific contexts. It demonstrates how soul language explores human values and meaning in the modern world. It provides a uniquely wide-ranging analysis of the concept of soul while discussing its contemporary usage, historical development, anthropology and presence in psychological theory and practice. Through examination of comparative beliefs worldwide, the book rejects the dismissive view that soul language is merely figurative, arguing instead that it complements embodiment language as vital resistance to forces that diminish discussions of human values. The conclusion argues for soul language as of inestimable value for expressing the subjective world where people, things and events truly matter, giving life to experiences that transcend purely materialist explanations. This is a valuable analysis and overview for professional and academic psychologists, philosophers, theologians, anthropologists and researchers interested in human nature and consciousness studies. It is also a stimulating and accessible resource for anyone exploring the intersection of spirituality, human values and scientific understanding of human experience.

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9781041221289

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Roger Smith is Emeritus Reader in History of Science, Lancaster University, UK, and Honorary Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University, UK. He took early retirement from Lancaster in 1998 and then lived in Moscow, Russia, where he was an Honorary Researcher of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has published academic books in the history of science, and edited others, on topics related to the history of mind-brain and the intellectual history of human nature and the human sciences. He has also published books for wider audiences, including with Routledge (2023), Kinaesthesia in the Psychology, Philosophy and Culture of Human Experience.

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