Preface 9
1. Humans as Rational Animals: -- c.13 Why Aristotle Still Matters
2. Getting It Right From the Start: -- c.24
Form, Shape, and the Nature of Things
3. Dividing Nature at Its Joints: -- c.33
The Difference between Plants, Animals, and Humans
4. Objective Differences in Perspective: -- c.44
Form Versus Shape
5. The Hows of Science and the Whys of Philosophy: -- c.57
Why Final Causes Are Still Necessary
6. How Aristotelians Think About What They Know: -- c.64
Perceiving Versus Conceiving
7. The Challenge of Evolutionary Biology: -- c.80
Why Aristotelians Don’t Fear Darwin
8. The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence: -- c.100
Calling the Materialist’s Bluff

9. The Inadequacy of Materialism: -- c.111
No Soul, No Words
10. The Bogy of Mechanism: -- c.132
Why Our Actions Will Always Be Unpredictable
11. Freedom and Rationality: -- c.148
Can’t Have One Without the Other
Epilogue --с. 159
Appendix: Assessing “Intelligent Design”
Notes --с. 167
Glossary --с. 197
Sources --с. 200

The claims of evolution and, more recently, the proponents of artificial intelligence have brought into question what it means to be human. Denying the existence of the soul apart from the body, many contemporary scientists are devout materialists—putting the traditional Aristotelian and Thomistic conception of the human being far out of fashion.
Ric Machuga, however, argues convincingly that our nature “is an essential unity of both the material and the immaterial,” that we not only have a soul but that we are a soul. The body is a necessary—but not sufficient—condi­tion for human existence.
In Defense of the Soul is an accessible and timely treatment of a timeless topic. This book will it attract readers interested in artificial intelligence, evolution, and the intelligent design debate, and is ideal for introductory college and seminary courses in philosophy.