Soul

From Srafopedia

The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the self-aware essence unique to a particular living being. In these traditions the soul is thought to incorporate the inner essence of each living being, and to be the true basis for sapience (thinking), rather than the brain or any other material or natural part of the biological organism. Souls are usually considered to be immortal and to exist prior to incarnation (conception/birth).

The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what may happen to the soul after the death of the body. Some religions don't even believe in the soul. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it to possibly have a material component, and some have even tried to establish the weight of the soul.

The consensus among neuroscientists and biologists is that the mind, or consciousness, is the operation of the brain. They often fuse the terms mind and brain together as "mind/brain" or bodymind. Science and medicine seek naturalistic accounts of the observable natural world. This stance is known as methodological naturalism. Much of the scientific study relating to the soul has been involved in investigating the soul as a human belief or as concept that shapes cognition and understanding of the world, rather than as an entity in and of itself.

(Source: Wikipedia)

"The Soul" in His Dark Materials

In Lyra's World a person's dæmon is the physical manifestation of their soul. It is said to represent a person's true character and nature -- changeable (unsettled) when young but becoming fixed (settled) at puberty. It remains close by them (except in the case of witches) until death, at which time it disintegrates back into the Dust from which it is formed.

We can, therefore, infer that Pullman's view of the human soul, in Our World, is that it does not exist independently of the living individual to which it belongs; and does not "live on" into an afterlife -- except in a dispersed form, mingling with the souls of all other deceased people from throughout history. In many respects this resembles the views of Buddhists.