https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=-qNLPfpLrt0

Human Composition

        1. Monism. This theory holds that man is composed of one

basic substance or principle as the ground of reality. In other words,
the reality of man consists of a single element, whether matter or
spirit.

        2. Dualism. This theory holds that man is made up of two

irreducible elements—matter and spirit.

        a. First View. Man’s matter and spirit are two independent

entities and they interact with each other. As two independent
elements, it is possible for the spirit and the body to either temporarily
or permanently separate at a particular period of time.

        The temporary condition may be when the person becomes

unconscious or in a clinical state of comatose; or permanent, when
the person dies and the physical body decomposes. This view was
supported / advocated by St. Thomas Aquinas, Carl Jung and
Sigmund Freud.

        According to Karl Rahner: We are a unity of body and soul.

Body and soul are equally real, true, radical, substantial, and original.
They are neither uniform nor deducible from each other. There is no
existential cleavage between them. Yet they can be distinguished
from each other. Soul is the form of the body. We can never
encounter mere body and never encounter pure soul.

        b. Second View. Man is matter-spirit.

        c. Third View [Biblical View]. Man is made up of body, soul,

and spirit.

        The body is the external, physical part of man which he uses for
seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Through the body,
he is able to have physical contact with his environment.

        The soul, which is regarded as a distinct entity from the body
and the spiritual part of man is something that cannot be seen and
constitutes the inner part of man, i.e., the mind and the will.

        According to Aristotle: There are living things and non-living

things. The soul is the characteristic activity of living things. The body
is alive if it has a soul.

        The spirit is the innermost part of man. It is a “supernatural” and

“incorporeal” being with which man communicates with God. It is the
essential part of man’s nature, the heart of human life.