Alma

The soul, in many religious, philosophical, and mythological traditions, is the incorporeal essence of a living being. Soul or psyche comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, feeling, consciousness, memory, perception, thinking, etc. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal. Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, understood that the soul (ψυχή psÅ«chíª) must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teachings as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence (Apology 30a-b). In Judaism and in some Christian denominations, only human beings have immortal souls (although immortality is disputed within Judaism and the concept of immortality may have been influenced by Plato). For example, the Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas attributed soul (anima) to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. Other religions (most notably Hinduism and Jainism) hold that all living things from the smallest bacterium to the largest of mammals are the souls themselves (Atman, jiva) and have their physical representative (the body) in the world. The actual self is the soul, while the body is only a mechanism to experience the karma of that life. Thus if we see a tiger then there is a self-conscious identity residing in it (the soul), and a physical representative (the whole body of the tiger, which is observable) in the world. Some teach that even non-biological entities (such as rivers and mountains) possess souls. This belief is called animism.

El término alma o ánima (del latín anima) se refiere a una entidad inmaterial que, según las afirmaciones y creencias de diferentes tradiciones y perspectivas filosóficas y religiosas, poseen los seres vivos. La descripción de sus propiedades y características varía según cada una de esas tradiciones y perspectivas. Etimológicamente, la palabra del latín anima se usaba para designar el principio por el cual los seres animados son semovientes, esto es, estaban dotados de movimiento propio y por tanto poseían vida. En ese sentido originario, tanto las plantas como los animales en general, el Sol, la Luna, los planetas conocidos, el viento, el fuego, el agua estarían dotados de alma (animismo) en proporciones distintas, por lo que algunos serían mortales (perderían su vida poco a poco) y otros no. Los avances en la fisiología, neurociencias y neurología permitieron reconocer que los seres animados obedecen al mismo tipo de principios físicos que los objetos inanimados, al mismo tiempo que pueden desarrollar actividades diferentes de estos, como la nutrición, el crecimiento y la reproducción.