Chapter 29 of Dasein's Journal: A Collection of Philosophical Thought (FOR FREE!)

Knowing Oneself as Proof of the Existence of the Soul

It seems that knowing oneself always returns as one of the fundamental goals in philosophical research. Knowing oneself can be translated to being able to clearly and precisely answer the following questions:

1)      What do I value and what are my values?

2)      What are my passions?

3)      What is my life purpose?

4)      What are the essential characteristics that define me as a unique individual, distinct from all other individuals that have existed, exist presently and that will exist in the future?

By knowing oneself, the passions of the soul become almost self-evident. In other words, once one knows himself/herself, how can the soul NOT exist?

Being and soul seem to be similar but it is important that specific differences be mentioned between the two terms if we wish to clearly understand both Being and soul. First of all, according to Aristotle, souls are only present in three forms: the vegetative soul, the animal (non-human) soul and the rational (human) soul. Being, on the other hand, is that which is found in everything, through phenomena. The being of non-living, soulless objects and entities reveal themselves through phenomena just as much as the being of living, soul carrying bodies and entities reveal themselves through phenomena. The difference is found in how the soul reveals itself, compared to how Being reveals itself.

Since I have already explored the phenomenological method on the revelation of being in the Being and Time Project, I will focus more on the revelation of the soul through a threefold process that includes Passion, Vision, and Discipline. I will introduce definitions for Passion, Vision, and Discipline within this philosophical system, in an attempt to render the notion of Soul to be almost self-evident.

In this philosophical system, Passion is the fire, the desire and the drive that sustains the Discipline. Discipline is paying the price to bring one’s Vision into reality. Finally, Vision is seeing with one’s mind eye all that is possible in Dasein, in projects, in fundamental principles, and in Being-in-itself. In simpler terms, having a Vision is knowing exactly what one wants to achieve during his/her earthly stay. Passion is why one must rather die that fail to achieve their Vision. Discipline is how one will conduct himself/herself in order to achieve their Vision. The fundamental principle here is that by knowing the «why» behind one's Vision, how to do what must be done becomes simple, but not necessarily easy.

There is still much to be revealed in order to reach a disposition where the existence of the soul is self-evident, but by meditating on Passion, Discipline, and Vision this week, I hope to get closer to this disposition. 

Have an awesome day and see you again tomorrow!

(Taken from Chapter 29 of my book) 

-P. Hilario (Dasein), Author of Dasein's Journal a Collection of Philosophical Thought, now available on Amazon.com! Order your copy at www.amazon.com/author/philario