Words Related with Soul in Eastern and Western Systems

The ontology of souls has been issued in religion and philosophy both in the Eastern and Western systems, sustaining pragmatic values in daily life. However, the concepts of soul are controversial in scientific criteria since they are not defined in the sensed experiences, and not explained by the rational theories. Challenging to the dilemma, this study attempts to analyze the words related to souls in dept of linguistic analysis paradigm. A diagram of soul words was composed by theoretical reviews for the Eastern and Western systems, and completed by parameters of word usages responded in a questionnaire which was invented by this study. The diagram shows that the concepts of soul are functionally related for the transcending world as ‘God-spirit’ governs ‘Inward-soul’ and ‘Outward-soul’ and for the real world as ‘Spirit’ mediates interaction between ‘Mind’ and ‘Body’. It is suggested that the tripartite are common for the Eastern and Western culture, so substituting the dichotic archetypes to interpreting mythic structures, and further resolving the gap between mind and body.

Keywords: God-spirit, Inward-soul, Outward-soul, Spirit, Mind, Body.