Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

9. A Little Bit of Soul

‘The light of modern consciousness burns brightly, but the earth was never meant to be bare of trees, nor our souls fully exposed to the light of reason. We are meant to include some element of uncharted terrain in our makeup. A clear-cut area becomes drier and less fertile with time, just as we, too, are diminished by a modern mind-set that wants to elevate critical thought and industry at the expense of vision and spirit.’

Mary Reynolds Thompson

‘There is nothing more powerful than the revelation of one’s own soul.’

Thomas Moore — Care of the Soul

The soul is clearly the most decisive expression of our human fascination with essence. But if it is difficult to prove the existence of consciousness, things are even more difficult when it comes to the term soul.

‘Soul’ is still a word that we use quite often. If, for instance, I were to say, I’m sick to my soul’, you’d likely know exactly what I mean. I would not have to explain myself as a manic-depressive with bi-polar tendencies, or such like. Likewise, if I were to say that something brings

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