In Defense of the Soul: What It Means to Be Human
What does it Mean to be Human?The claims of evolution and, more recently, the proponents of artificial intelligence have brought into question what it means to be human. Denying the existence of the soul apart from the body, many contemporary scientists are devout materialists putting the traditional Aristotelian and Thomistic conception of the human being far out of fashion.Ric Machuga, however, argues convincingly that our nature is an essential unity of both the material and the immaterial, that we not only have a soul but that we are a soul. The body is a necessary but not sufficient condition for human existence.In Defense of the Soul is an accessible and timely treatment of a timeless topic. This book will it attract readers interested in artificial intelligence, evolution, and the intelligent design debate, and is ideal for introductory college and seminary courses in philosophy.This is the kind of book many more philosophy teachers ought to be writing, bridging the gap between the technical and the popular, translating good philosophical arguments for true philosophical conclusions about important philosophical and human questions into terms, examples, and analogies any intelligent reader can follow.Peter Kreeft, author of Catholic Christianity and coauthor of The Handbook of Christian Apologetics