Man found that he was faced with the acceptance of 'spiritual' forces, that is to say such forces as cannot be comprehended by the senses, particularly not by sight, and yet having undoubted, even extremely strong, effects. If we may trust to language, it was the movement of the air that provided the image of spirituality, since the spirit borrows its name from the breath of wind (animus, spiritus, Hebrew: ruach = smoke). The idea of the soul was thus born as the spiritual principle in the individual ... Now the realm of spirits had opened for man, and he was ready to endow everything in nature with the soul he had discovered in himself.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Freud explains how humans conceptualized spiritual forces and the soul by metaphorically linking them to invisible natural phenomena like wind and breath.
- In plain terms
- People imagined spirits and souls by comparing them to things they couldn't see but could feel, like the wind.
- What can you take from it?
- Abstract concepts often originate from tangible sensory experiences.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do physical sensations shape spiritual beliefs?
- Where do our abstract ideas truly come from?
Another view
The explanation relies heavily on etymological assumptions that may not be universally valid.
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