The oddest thing about Descartes'disputation of the pilot and ship analogy, or ghost in the machine, is, when one assumes to connect body and spirit as symbiotic, the question is raised: What is one without the other?

It seems to me that incorporating some physiology into the philosophical term "soul" you would actually be hinting toward the existence of a physiological soul. One that exists in the brain, just the same as (sorry I don't know the proper term) your memory chamber. Once you've properly damaged your memory chamber with a sharp stick, you can effectively lose any trace of who you are, were, what you know, what religion you adhere to etc.

That would mean that memories, wisdom, personality etc. are also functions of the body, because given proper damage, they will be erased. I would say that death would be sufficient to damage your memory chamber enough to erase your entire formulation of "yourself." So once you've died and lost that, what do you really have left. Is the soul some kind of resonance of one's emotional wisdom, since knowledge of life disappears with your rotting corpse? Is it possible that your soul is only temporary?

Please respond somebody.

Derek Olson