A spirit is a disembodied intelligent being. It is disembodied
in the sense of not being composed of ordinary matter, and
intelligent in the sense of being an agent that desires to do
certain things. Origin in folk psychology The spirit can be seen
as an artifact of an incorrect theory of mind. To our ancestors,
things in the world could be divided into two categories: things
that move about, breathe, and seem to act purposefully, such as
people and animals; and things that don't, such as plants and
stars. Just as importantly, a dead person or animal looks just
like a living one, but does not breathe, walk, talk, or act in a
purposeful manner. From this, it is easy to conclude that there
is something in a person or animal, separate from the body, that
causes it to act the way it does in life. This spirit, then,
contains all of the essential elements of life. Since breathing
stops at death, the spirit may be somehow connected to it. And
if the spirit is separate from the body, it may survive death.
While this