Trichotomy

Trichotomy (from the Greek: τρία tria "three" and τομή tomé "cut, division") or trialism (from the Latin: trialis "containing three") is the term used to describe the threefold division of the human being into the three members of spirit, soul and body. In the Catholic Church, the doctrine of trichotomy has been considered heresy since the Fourth Council of Constantinople (869). It was replaced by the dichotomy, which concedes only body and soul to man and denies his independent spirit. This dualistic view continues to have an effect in philosophy and the sciences to this day, as shown by the never-ending discussions about the body soul problem, which are primarily linked to Descartes' postulated division of the human being into a spatially extended physical res extensa and an inextensible, point-like soul-spirit res cogitans. How a psychophysical interaction is supposed to occur between these completely different substances remains completely unclear. From an anthroposophical point of view, however, body, soul and spirit are not different substances but, in the sense of a consistent monism, different manifestations of one and the same spiritual substance. This can be compared to water, which can appear as gaseous steam, as liquid water and as solid frozen ice.