For one who thinks that there is nothing more to reality than what can be detected and explained by the empirical sciences, discourse about the soul, especially the human soul, remains at best a quaint reminder of outmoded views of nature, at worst an absurd hindrance to our knowledge of the world. In such a view, the title of this essay needs an apostrophe so that we might discuss the material makeup of what has traditionally been called a “soul.” My title, however uses “matter” as a verb, not as a noun.
For materialists, souls simply do not matter. Nevertheless, despite the sustained efforts of thinkers such as Paul Churchland, Daniel Dennett, and countless others, there continues to be a lingering sense that there is more to living beings than simply their material components. What this “more” might be remains a subject of contention.
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