Let us remember Socrates when he was interrogating his followers :
"What do you want ? Do you want to have reasonable souls, or souls without reason ?
Of the reasonable souls.
What sort of reasonable souls ?, Good or corrupted ?
Good.
But why do you not look for them ?
Because we have them.
Why then these fights and these discussions between you ? (cf. citation of Marcus Aurelius - Thoughts, eleventh Book).

Yes, also at this beginning of the third millennium these discussions are necessary more than ever because of the social and moral confusion and of the lack of credible answers brought by the intelligentsia to the essential problems,
in particular those which concern soul, that is spiritual identity.

Spiritual Identity, Soul, for the modern man

Plato in Phèdre, has imagined soul as a carriage which its coachman cannot drive, on account of numerous internal conflicts.

As for Aristotle, he saw in soul, "the main entelechy of a natural element having life to potential state" (cf. Of the Soul, II, 1, 412 a 38-39),
the entelechy being representative of the perfection state ; to our knowledge, there is not philosopher who proposed a more "modern" understanding of the soul.
When someone speaks of natural element having life to potential state, does not he recognize universal character of the life's phenomenon ?

However, in numerous civilizations, today too, soul will be, is recognized as an operator having mysterious powers.
Let us remember saint Augustine :

"… my soul is doing enquiry on her own powers, she is not sure of herself …" (Cf. Confessions - Book X, 32-48),

"The soul commands the hand to be moved, and such readiness is there that the command is scarce to be distinguished from the obedience. Yet the soul is mind, and the hand is body.
The soul commands that the soul will, and yet, ..., she does not do. Why this monstrous thing ? And why is it ? I repeat, it commands itself to will, and would not give the command unless it willed; yet is not that done which it commands.
But it wills not entirely; therefore it commands not entirely. For so far forth it commands, as it wills; and so far forth is the thing commanded not done, as it wills not. For the will commands that there be a will ; not another, but itself.
But it does not command entirely, therefore that is not which it commands. For were it entire, it would not even command it to be, because it would already be … " (cf. Confessions - Book VIII, 9).

Certainly, Augustine understanding of the powers and faculties is very elementary compared to the one that we can have at this beginning of the third millennium, nevertheless it is remarkable because it recognizes an essential fact : the "non-omnipotence" of the soul, of the spirit.

Afterward, at instigation of early fathers of the christendom who constantly have privileged biblical tradition , man and soul (spirit) have been "cut" of their transcendent roots and therefore universal.
But , who can forget mystic inspirations of Plotinus ? :

"If souls already had faculty from feeling something when they were engendered as souls, if therefore they were engendered as souls to enter into reality, as a result, for them, enter into reality is inherent to their nature." (cf. Treatise 38. 1, 19),

"But if soul moves towards the "Non-Shape" (the Without-Dimension), being then in the total incapacity from seizing him, because she is not bounded by him ... " (cf. Treatise 9 - 3, 5).

So, for this great mystic, a little ignored, soul would not depend directly on a "Without Shape", of a "Without dimension", of an "Unitary Power", but would go constantly towards him.

What can we say reasonably, today ?

Contrary to beliefs of P.J.Barthez (on 1734 - 1806) founder of the vitalist school, the life's laws are not fundamentally different of the universal laws.
Henceforth, the knowledges, indeed enable from asserting that we evolve in a cyberworld, fruit of ceaseless creations and continual "renewals", where the "sense" is omnipresent, and therefore, where there is no abyss between inert matter and living matter.

Regrettably, this revolution of the knowledge takes place under leadership of "monists" and without large reactions of "spiritualists" who appear to be satisfied with the current scientific logics.
Let's quote thus, the monists who ignore systematically, the permanent utilization of the value references which enable coherence and dynamics of the reality's states, perturbed or in an apparent equilibrium,
and this, by means of transcendent activities.

For example, can we believe that the activity of the cells, these manufactories fathomless and immense where are scheduled and synthetized of the enzymes, of which processes will always unknown of our conscious understanding,
is a happy do-it-yourself ?,
can we believe that the activity of the cells is possible without a "will", without a primordial intention ?
Evidently, no.

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