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Inreligion andphilosophy,spirit is thevital principle or animating essence withinhumans or, in some views, allliving things. Although views of spirit vary between different belief systems, when spirit is contrasted with thesoul, the former is often seen as a basic natural force, principle or substance, whereas the latter is used to describe the organized structure of an individual being'sconsciousness, in humans to include theirpersonality. Spirit as a substance may also be contrasted withmatter, where it is usually seen as more subtle, an idea put forth for example in thePrincipia Mathematica.[1]
The wordspirit came intoMiddle English viaOld Frenchesperit. Its source isLatinspīritus, whose original meaning was "breath, breathing" and hence "spirit, soul, courage, vigor";[2] its ultimate origin is aProto-Indo-European root*(s)peis-.
In Latin,spīritus was distinct from Latinanima, whose etymological meaning was also "breathing" (PIE root*h₂enh₁-),[a] yet which had taken a slightly different meaning, namely "soul".
The distinction between "soul" and "spirit" in English mirrors that between "psykhē" and "pneuma" inClassical Greek, with both words having a connection to breathing:
| ψυχή | psykhē | originally "cold air", hence "breath of life" and "soul"[2] (PIE root*bhes- "to breathe")[b] |
| πνεῦμα | pneuma | "breath, motile air, spirit", from verbπνέω (pnéō) "to breathe" |
Similar concepts in other languages include ChineseLing andhun (靈魂) and Sanskritakasha /atman[2] (see alsoprana). Some languages use a word for spirit often closely related (if not synonymous) tomind. Examples include the GermanGeist (related to the English wordghost) or the Frenchl'esprit.[4] English versions of theBible most commonly translate the Hebrew wordruach (רוח;wind) as "the spirit".[5]
A distinction between soul and spirit developed in Arabic and Hebrew: Arabicnafs (نفس) oppositerūḥ (روح); and Hebrewneshama (נְשָׁמָהnəšâmâh) ornephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁnép̄eš) (in Hebrew,neshama comes from the rootNŠM or "breath") oppositeruach (רוּחַrúaħ). (Note, however, that in Semitic just as in Indo-European, this dichotomy has not always been as neat historically as it has come to be taken over a long period of development: Bothנֶ֫פֶשׁ (rootנפשׁ) andרוּחַ (rootרוח), as well as cognate words in various Semitic languages, including Arabic, also preserve meanings involving miscellaneous air phenomena: "breath", "wind", and even "odour".)
Alternatively, Hebrew texts commonly use the wordnephesh.Kabbalists regardnephesh as one of the five parts of the Jewishsoul, wherenephesh (animal) refers to the physical being and its animal instincts. Similarly,Scandinavian,Baltic, andSlavic languages use the words forbreath to express concepts similar to "the spirit".[2]
InAncient Greek medicine andphilosophy generally, the spirit (pneuma, literally "breath") was thought to be the animating force in living creatures.Plato considered the spirit to be one of three parts of a person'ssoul.
InStoicism, spirit is an all-pervading force frequently identified with God. The soul (psyche) was thought to be a particular kind ofpneuma, which was present in humans and animals, but not in plants.[6]
The ChristianNew Testament uses the termpneuma to refer to "spirit", "spiritual" and specifically to theHoly Spirit.[7] The relationship between the Holy Spirit in Christianity and spirit in other religions is unclear. The distinction betweenpsyche andpneuma may be borrowed from the Hellenistic religions throughHellenistic Jews such asPhilo, a view held by the so-calledHistory of religions school.[8]
However, others think that the Holy Spirit may actually resemble theStoic concept of theanima mundi, or world soul, more than thepneuma. According to theologian Erik Konsmo, there is no relationship between thepneuma in Greek philosophy and thepneuma in Christianity beyond the use of the word itself.[8]
The new religious movementChristian Science uses "Spirit" as one of seven synonyms forGod, as in: "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love".[9][c]
Latter Day Saint prophetJoseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844) rejected the concept of spirit as incorporeal or without substance: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes."[10] Regarding the soul, Joseph Smith wrote "And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."[11] Thus, the soul is the combination of a spirit with a body (although most members of the Church use "soul" and "spirit" interchangeably). In Latter-Day Saint scripture, spirits are sometimes referred to as "intelligences".[12]However, other LDS scriptures teach that God organized the spirits out of a pre-existing substance called "intelligence" or "the light of truth".[13]
As recently as 1628 and 1633 respectively, bothWilliam Harvey andRené Descartes still speculated that somewhere within the body, in a special locality, there was a "vital spirit" or "vital force", which animated the whole bodily frame, just as the engine in a factory moves the machinery in it.[14][d]
Various forms ofanimism, such as Japan'sShinto andAfrican traditional religion, focus on invisible beings that represent or connect with plants, animals, orlandforms (in Japanese:kami); translators usually employ the English word "spirit" when trying to express the idea of such entities.[15]
The traditionalChinese concept ofqi is a kind ofvital force forming part of any living being. The exact meaning of the term morphed over the course of the development ofChinese philosophy. The literal meaning of theChinese language termqi (气), like many analogous concepts in other cultures, derives from the word for "breath";[2] this may have been the meaning of the word in theAnalects ofConfucius.[16]
Gods, especiallyanthropromorphic gods, are sometimes thought to haveqi and be a reflection of themicrocosm of qi in humans.[17] Qi also was in natural forces, where it could be controlled by gods and harnessed bymagicians.[17]
According toC. G. Jung (in a lecture delivered to the literary Society of Augsburg, 20 October 1926, on the theme of “Nature and Spirit”):
The connection between spirit and life is one of those problems involving factors of such complexity that we have to be on our guard lest we ourselves get caught in the net of words in which we seek to ensnare these great enigmas. For how can we bring into the orbit of our thought those limitless complexities of life which we call "Spirit" or "Life" unless we clothe them in verbal concepts, themselves mere counters of the intellect? The mistrust of verbal concepts, inconvenient as it is, nevertheless seems to me to be very much in place in speaking of fundamentals. "Spirit" and "Life" are familiar enough words to us, very old acquaintances in fact, pawns that for thousands of years have been pushed back and forth on the thinker's chessboard. The problem must have begun in the grey dawn of time, when someone made the bewildering discovery that the living breath which left the body of the dying man in the last death-rattle meant more than just air in motion. It can scarcely be an accidentonomatopoeic words likeruach (Hebrew),ruch (Arabic),roho (Swahili) mean 'spirit' no less clearly thanπνεύμα (pneuma,Greek) andspiritus (Latin).[18]
People have frequently conceived of spirit as asupernatural being, ornon-physical entity; for example, ademon,ghost,fairy, orangel.[2] In ancientIslamic terminology however, the termspirit (rūḥ), applies only to "pure" spirits, but not to other invisible creatures, such asjinn,demons andangels.[19][need quotation to verify]
Psychical research, "In all the publications of theSociety for Psychical Research the term 'spirit' stands forthe personalstream of consciousness whatever else it may ultimately be proved to imply or require." (James H. Hyslop, 1919)[20]
The concepts of spirit andsoul often overlap,[e]and some systems propose that both survive bodily death.[21][f]
In some belief systems, the "spirit" may separate from the body upon death and remain in the world in the form of aghost, i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person.
An address delivered on the occasion of the opening of the new biological laboratory of theJohns Hopkins University, 2 Jan. 1884, by H. Newell Martin, M.D., Dr.Sc., M.A., professor of biology in the university.
The dictionary definition ofspirit (animating force) at Wiktionary
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