 Note that the general tendency of Scotus’s theories of form and matter is to allow a high degree of independence to form and matter. In positing the existence of prime matter, Scotus envisions matter as existing without any form; in denying universal hylomorphism, he envisions form as existing without any matter. And the doctrine of the plurality of substantial forms strongly suggests that the human soul is an identifiable individual in its own right. So everything Scotus says in this connection seems to make room for the possibility that the soul survives the death of the body and continues to exist as an immaterial substance in its own right. But Scotus canvases a number of philosophical arguments for the claim that this possibility is in fact realized, and he finds none of them compelling. That the human soul survives the death of the body is something we can know only through faith.