Talk:Human spirit

There doesn't seem to be a common term that describes the individual drive to push the boundaries of human existence. More than the survival instinct or other adaptive behaviors and traits of living organisms, the Human Spirit is a unique trait of intelligence that allows for the organism to adapt the environment instead. Cbeast (talk) 20:27, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Article issues
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I am going to tag the article with a personal essay cleanup tag. Please do not remove the tag until these issues have been addressed. Also, please note that this tag may not stop other editors from taking action on the article. I do not believe that the article content as it stands would receive community consensus to keep, but I am hopeful that additional work may improve it to the point it is a good article. -- Michael Devore (talk) 01:10, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Author's response
The personal essay tag is noted. I am working on the treatment of the research presentation and references. This venerable idiom was chosen because it best describes the dynamic between the organism and intelligence. The term itself provokes controversy. The parlance of the article attempts to avoid metaphysical connotations. Wikipedia seems to be a good neutral ground for this discussion. I won't engage in edit wars, but will remain open to research on this phenomenon as it relates to this entry. Cbeast (talk) 15:31, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't think the human spirit should be characterized as allowing the organism to adapt to the environment. This isn't to be confused with evolution that adapts a species to the environment through natural selection or selective breeding. For instance, our current level of technology doesn't allow us to breath underwater without an apparatus. Instead, we create an artificial environment that allows us to interface with an alien one. One can argue that learning to swim is using intelligence to adapt to the environment, but newborn babies can instictively swim. With all due respect to Freud, intelligence is indeed expressed by adapting the organism to the environment. Our daily behavior allows us to find our place in the world geographically and socially, but that behavior is shaped by our environment and society. We punctuate our accomplishments by expressing our human spirit at critical moments, but intelligence itself is driven in many other directions not yielding progressive results. The scalpel may present vanity as an expression of intelligence, but generally doesn't lead to progressive group behavior. Much of our intelligence is wasted on entertainment, competition, and greed. Cbeast (talk) 00:13, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Rewrite
I have started afresh, working from a source. Please only add material for which there is a good supporting citation as it is only in this way that we will avoid the criticism of original research. Colonel Warden (talk) 01:15, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
 * It would be good to have something on the eastern conception of the human spirit, as I understand it some of the  more theological schools within hinduism and even bhudism also have the distinction between soul and spirit, again with soul being the individual element that gets reincarnated, but ultimatley with all being one in spirit with God.  Some other pagan traditions are similar. Also it would be good to have more on the non religous/  humanist view, but I cant think of good sources for this off hand. Once its been added there are a lot of other interesting things I can add about the Christian view. FeydHuxtable (talk) 12:01, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Superstition wins again
I do enjoy reading about the Holy Spirit, God, and other fictions; but really don't see how they apply to the progress made by humanity. Call me crazy, but I don't believe in invisible people. I am sorry my article has been deleted. I did write a book about it and maybe one day it will be referenced for a humanistic definition of the Human Spirit. It's called Playground: The World is Yours Createspace (2009) ISBN-10: 1449906869 ISBN-13: 978-1449906863 Jim Gauthier 10:02, 16 July 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cbeast (talk • contribs)

Spirit, soul, body.
Christianity, or its present-day form, has become very confused over this issue. To interpret the Bible, in such passages as "walking in flesh/spirit" one has to turn not to theologians but Self-enqiry, solipsism, Christian Mysticism, or Hindu Jnana-yoga. All of which are more or less synonymus. Comparing humanity to actors (as does Shakespeare in "As you like it", 'All the world's a stage...') - Spirit is the actor, the reality. Soul is the role temporarily played on the stage of life. Body is the actor's temporary costume. And 'ego' is a combination of mind and body, mind being considered no more than a mass of thoughts which, like pollen, can be assimilated or rejected - with no personal significance. Spirit has been compared to Breath, and Genesis 2:7 states God made man from only two ingredients - the dust of the ground, and His breath. Neither, one assumes, could be capable of 'sin'. When a ship is 'lost with all souls', the implication is that only bodies perish. When man 'gives up the ghost' (an old word for spirit) we assume that he leaves his body behind, just as a driver alights from his car. The Bible talks of spirit as that in which 'we live and move and have our being'. Present-day science, in an effort to account for a mass of chemicals being able to walk, talk, move etc, comes up with a vague notion of 'bio-physics'. The science of the spirit is not yet existent. Such philosophy requires pre-determinism, impossibility of sin, and - apparently- of free-will also. Man as puppets of an unknown puppeteer.BUT only insofar as he identifies with his body and mind, in contrast to spirit. He is imprisoned by his cherished limitations, like drops of water in an ocean that insist on having imaginary boundaries. It is as if a driver were to consider himself a mixture of steel, glass, rubber, plus gasoline to give him life.Or the external universe as real, rather than dream-imagery of which he is merely observer. As St Paul put it, borrowing from the Upanishads: "That which is seen is unreal, that which is unseen is eternal". Spirit does not have a plural, only one exists. Nothing in the Bible suggests the 'spirit' (which Jesus tells us in Luke is, as the kingdom of God, not external but 'within') is different from the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. In fact, in the sermon on the mount, we are told "YE are the light of the world" in Matthew. We are not told that we are miserable sinners, or that there is an 'unholy ghost'; on the contrary, man is almost always addressed from the standpoint of his only real essence as being spirit. Jesus in particular, totally aware of His spirit (Father in Heaven), seldom referred to His human personality. thus "I am the way, the truth, and the life" most certainly does not mean Christianity is exclusive upon belief in a single personality, but that Spirit, as real Self, is the one path of all religions. The notion that a human 'has' a spirit is absurd, the reverse is the case - spirit has us. Furthermore, it leads to the falsity of denumerating entities by body count. If we say that every drop in an ocean contains potentially the whole ocean, we ignore the fact that (to the ocean) there ARE no drops. In similar vein, the Buddha speaks of seeing bodies as piles of inert dust. The vehicle does not own the driver, who may in fact own a fleet of cars. Or, in multiple personality disorder, a body may be shared by several entities. 122.57.152.168 (talk) 03:20, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

Article praise
I enjoyed finding that this article took a neutral standpoint to a topic which I personally resolve through a Christian viewpoint. Although the article could clearly be expanded to take in the broader philosophical views of further cultures or religions, what is there is fine.

Personally, I found it interesting to learn that Muslims view of the spirit is different to my own and wonder, is there a view to distinguish between the soul and spirit or, just an understanding the human spirit and God's spirit are separate? In contrast, Christians believe that the human spirit (Holy Spirit) is God's spirit. "In Islam, Muslims are viewed as having their own spirits, but one that in a sense is one with God's spirit."

KING (talk) 03:41, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

Standard facts (for clarification of the topic)
Editors,

The spirit referred to as the main topic of this article, ruach, is almost solely referred to as the Holy Spirit by Christians and, as the Holy Ghost by Catholics.

This seems worthy of inclusion for disambiguation that the topic of this article is not some other spirit, and for clarification, as well as for reference.

KING (talk) 01:59, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

High and Low Spirited People, and Animals Too
The expression of a person's spirit may have nothing to do with religion of that person's ability to communicate with ethereal beings, but instead be a description of the nature or personality of the individual.

This is to a degree a psychological condition which varies between different people and can vary in time for the individual too. It even applies to certain kinds of animals that are sensitive to people like dogs, cats, tame monkeys and horses. Some of these creatures show their mood for life as a permanent feature to which their human companions are aware.

When a person has achieved something good his/her spirits will raise, become happy and generous. On the other hand, when the person has failed to achieve an objective, then there is an air of low spirit, sadness or even depression about that individual. Some people are full of fun and optimism for much of their lives and others are in a general state of sadness and pessimism. Some people are full of talk and easily will begin a conversation with a stranger, others are frigid in good company and they will listen to what is being said, but without much inclination to join in the conversation.

I would like to know and learn more about how one might change these features in humans, so that without drugs a depressed personality can be set on the path for greater happiness, both in him/herself and in what he/she might radiate to others. Macrocompassion (talk) 14:49, 9 February 2019 (UTC)

Human Spirit
We are have, but no one can see IT. It's inside us all, and everyone can live.

The Human Spirit breathes a breath of life that powers the entire universe. A club of immortality where the only boarding pass is new life.

Solid, Liquid, Soul: The Human Spirit

Comment and again to acknowledge the souls of humanism.

Hey Soul! Joseph Anthony Bartolotta 06:33, 8 November 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by SurelockHolmes (talk • contribs)

Human spirit
God 63.143.116.192 (talk) 18:18, 17 February 2023 (UTC)