What then is the "being" of man? This really is asking for the
"man-ness" of a man, something characteristic of him, and inseparable
from him. Is the genuine definition of a man that "he is a reasonable
animal"? Would not this rather be the definition of the composite
man? What is the being that produces the reasonable animal? In the
above definition of man, "reasonable animal" means "reasonable life";
consequently, man may be called the "reasonable life." But can life
exist without a soul? (No), for the soul will give the man reasonable
life; and in this case, instead of being a substance, man will be
only an actualization of the soul; or even, the man will be the soul
herself. But if man be the reasonable soul, what objection will there
be to his remaining man even when his soul should happen to pass into a
different body (as that of a brute animal)?