  More generally, William argues that no body could perform the soul's function of giving life to the body. For example, if a body were to give life, it would itself have to be a living body, and thus it would itself have to have a soul that rendered it alive. This soul, in turn, would have to be a living body and thus have its own soul, and so on ad infinitum. Thus, the doctrine that souls are bodies leads to an infinite regress.