Jane O'Grady
Missing in Action
In Search of the Soul: A Philosophical Essay
By John Cottingham
Princeton University Press 174pp £18.99
‘Your immortal soul!’ my father used to shout, brandishing his fist. His lament was also a threat – to me, his teenage daughter, that I stood to lose my soul if I lost my Catholic faith. Nowadays, of course, even religious people are cagey as to whether, or in what way, we could be said to have (or be) souls. And yet, as John Cottingham reminds us, it still makes sense, even without the framework of salvation and afterlife, to talk of Faustian bargains or of the futility of gaining the world at the expense of one’s soul. We see commuter crowds surging over London Bridge through the eyes of Eliot, quoting Dante, as the ‘undone’ souls of Hell, or, like Yeats, think ourselves ‘paltry … unless/Soul clap its hands and sing’. We can still, as the Romantic poets did, feel our souls ‘soar’ like the fast-disappearing skylark. The term ‘soul’, Cottingham says, ‘very often points us not just towards the selves that we are, but towards the better selves we ought to be’.
But though we understand these usages of the term and are moved by them, what does that amount to? Saying you love someone with your whole heart is not to assume that the heart is the organ of love but to express an overwhelming emotion; and surely the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
literaryreview.co.uk
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk