Does the soul have a sense of "self?"

[GaryTaylor]

God can impart great amounts of knowledge to us at any time, without using the five senses.

I am He Who in one moment so enlightens the humble mind that it comprehends more of eternal truth than could be learned by ten years in the schools. I teach without noise of words or clash of opinions, without ambition for honor or confusion of argument.
-IOC

Don’t you get the distinct feeling you won’t need your body to live?

 

[Robert_Sock]

Don’t you get the distinct feeling you won’t need your body to live?

I do not believe that we need a body; the soul can exist on its own.

 

[GEddie]

Don’t you get the distinct feeling you won’t need your body to live?

Not really.

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

Aquinas’ answer is that the soul has its own act of existence which it communicates to the body, but that, without the body, it is not a complete substance (since it has an essential relation to the body). (S.C.G II, 68) Consequently, without the body it cannot exercise any of its natural activities. Thus, the rational soul can exist without the body, but it cannot do anything in, what is for it, an unnatural state. The separated soul, then, needs God either to reunite it with its body, or infuse it with knowledge, both of which would be supernatural gifts.

aquinasonline.com/Topics/soul.html

Taking the Aquinas quote above, suggests that a soul is very much aware of “self”. Even when it is not a complete substance, it will long for Gods supernatural gifts to restore it (glorified body or God’s infusion) to thrive.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Whether memory is a function of the soul is a matter of theological dispute.

I know that Aquinas held that it was not, but that is not infallible doctrine.

Rigorously, no intellect or will is possible without the head, either.

ICXC NIKA.

I think Aquinas held that some aspect of memory was a function of the soul. Personally, I don’t see how memory could exist anywhere else.

Linus2nd

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Unproven assumption.

Not an assumption, a closely reasoned philosophical argument. Read it in the S.T. and the S.C.G.

Linus2nd

 

[AKDee]

From everything I’ve read about the Holy Souls in Purgatory, they retain their sense of self. They know who they are, what they did, and where they want to be. They can ask people here for prayers and have appeared to some people who have recorded the experience.

Additionally, we address in prayer many Saints by name. Why would we call them by name if they have no sense of self?