The Soul as Cause of the Unity of the Organism

My purpose is to build on Fr. Michael Dodds’ hylomorphic account of human unity and his response to the mind–brain problem. Dodds first carefully examines the unity of the human being and then argues that hylomorphism best explains it. Following the same methodology, I extend his account to organisms in general, first examining the evidence for their unity and then showing how hylomorphism accounts for it better than do materialism, emergentism, and dualism. I also investigate whether examining the powers of living things and their integral parts can further illuminate the relation between mental and brain activities.