WORLD SOUL, in the history of philosophy, denotes the conception that there is in the world a universal spirit or soul which is related to the material world in a way that is similar or analogous to the relation of the human soul to the body. This view was taught by various Greek philosophers, notably by Plato and the Stoics. In modern times Schelling held a similar concep
tion, and attributed to the world-soul the function of acting as an organizing principle of the material world, which is thereby made into a coherent system. See PLATO ; STOICS ; SCHELLING.