The concept of soul has been on my mind lately, as I think about worldbuilding,
My initial preference is a science fiction fantasy, that is to say a world that works according to my materialistic worldview,
But magic in fiction is fun,
So I make it a world, who's now extinct forerunners, genetically manipulated themselves, to form a number of generic fantasy races,
Unusual races, still easily in sci fi,
Unusual abilities, well, there are electric eels, flame spitting bugs, poison cobras in Earth nature,
A measure of the fantastic in individuals potential and effort grabbed ability is possible,
But then I come to necromancy,
How would a raising of skeletons even work, by their previous call to life, their spirits?
But that is 'too far in fantasy for my world view,
Additionally, and here's where I start to address this threads topic,
What is 'meant by spirit, soul?
. . .
The Witch of Endor consults the spirit of Samuel,
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu's spirit, after his death, haunts some people to death, before being chastised by a monk of something,
Some other religions believe in reincarnation,
And if they meant the material and energy of the body, circle of life, that's logical for me,
But I think they mean,
"rebirth of the aspect of an individual that persists after bodily death—whether it be consciousness, mind, the soul, or some other entity—in one or more successive existences. "
Nature and Nurture passing on is not what is meant by a number of people, by the soul and spirit, I'd argue.
. . .
So I again wonder, what 'is the soul?
I'll accept the immaterial exist, such as concepts of math, game theory,
But these concepts are divorced from humans, not inborn, 'I think.
. . .
And even 'with argument of human propensity for them, such would be 'material.
I find myself unable to view the soul as something other than material,
Yet if it is material, then it is mundane, merely an extension of life as is.
What is meant, value had, or 'Ego, in the immaterial?