To begin discussion of the soul is to try to define it in some way. When a 'self-respecting' professor wants to define cognition or love for me, I suppose it should subjected to intellectual snobbery?<p>I am not a Catholic but they have, and have had, many scholars who have attacked this and other difficult metaphysical questions. Also, humans have believed in the concept of a soul for a long time and the vast majority still do. Some of the greatest insights into human nature came from the distant past.