He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Luke 10:27
Classical Greek and Roman philosophers attempted to build models of human beings, dividing up a human into manageable components. To be honest, I have studied these models and they don’t provide me with a framework that is satisfying and practical. To be a good working theory, I’d like to see a model help me understand myself better and make predictions about my states and behaviors which lead to, well, happiness.
Scott Adams, in his book “Win Bigly”, has an interesting commentary on “filters” and how to judge their worth. Scott Adams uses the term “filter” for what I would term a “model”, a “framework” or even a “world view”. To be a worthy framework, it must be able to make accurate predictions and as Scott Adams would say, make one happy.
Philosophy’s traditional component breakdown of a human being divides a human into a body, a mind and a soul, throwing in a will as well. But the Bible talks about several other components in addition to these. Let’s compose a list of components found in God’s revelation and then work to fit these into a good model of what a human is. Notice that each of the components below has an article in the appendix written about it if you need more details.
- Body— The physical machine we possess. Matthew 6:25
- Head– The part of the body where a command center resides. The head contains that special brain-like hardware where the spirit and soul interface. 1 Corinthians 11:3 Ephesians 1:22-23
- Flesh– Sometimes a synonym for body, but more often a component of the body as in “flesh and bones”. However, “flesh” can produce motivations, lusts and desires and thus is more a synonym for the corrupt soul. Matthew 26:41
- Mind– A place of judgment, decision, knowledge and understanding (not the brain). Luke 24:45
- Conscience– A component with moral inertia, to motivate according to a pre-programmed law. 1 Timothy 1:5
- Soul— The innate and automatic manager of our body– the Operating System; MUCH more on this later… Matthew 16:25
- Life– Not so much a component, but can be confused for the soul. Matthew 6:25
- Heart– The real you, where it all comes together. Proverbs 4:23
- Will– Where the mind’s decisions become intentions or orders to act. John 1:13
- Spirit– Thought to be the home of the mind and will, an eternal component to our human being. Sometimes equated with the heart. Job 32:8 Matthew 26:41
- Attitude– A choice of thinking that adjusts the perspective of the heart, altering the perceptions of the heart based on that perspective. Philippians 2:5
- Faith– Perhaps not so much a component, but a valuable concept in understanding what it means to be human. Hebrews 11:1
- Hope– Related to faith in that this is less of a component and more like a foundation concept that powers all human existence. Romans 8:24
There are probably more components we could add, but these are the primary ones.
The next question is, how do all these components fit together into a model that can give us accurate predictions and make us happy.
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