1) Is the soul “active” in sleep?
During sleep, the soul remains active, but the brain—the bodily organ supplying phantasms—is no longer operating in its normal ordered waking state. As a result, the intellect cannot properly carry out discursive reasoning, and the will is not fully engaged in deliberate rational choice. Thus, reasoning in dreams is typically fragmented, associative, and lacking full rational governance.
2) Can we carry the process of “discursive reasoning” in dreams?
What appears to be reasoning in dreams is usually a flow of associated images, memory fragments, emotional carryover, and loosely connected phantasms rather than fully ordered discursive reasoning. During dreams, the intellect no longer actively governs thought through deliberate rational control, but instead reacts to the non-linear phantasms presented by the imagination.
3) Role of the will in dreams
The will does not directly produce phantasms. When awake, it can indirectly guide thought by directing attention, sustaining focus, or shifting away from certain images. During sleep, however, the will’s deliberate rational control is greatly diminished because the intellect is no longer operating in a fully ordered way. As a result, dreams typically unfold without deliberate direction: one does not ordinarily choose the dream or govern its course, except in special cases such as lucid dreaming.
4) Moral character in dreams
A person’s habitual virtues and vices remain as stable dispositions of the will even during sleep. However, moral responsibility in dreams is greatly reduced or absent because dreams generally lack full knowledge, rational deliberation, and free consent. Therefore, actions performed in dreams do not fully express moral virtue or vice in the proper sense, since they are not freely chosen through deliberate rational judgment. Nevertheless, dreams may still reveal tendencies or reflect emotional and habitual inclinations rooted in the person’s character.
Habit (virtue or vice) is a stable disposition of the will, whereas a mechanical action involves no rational inclination at all, as in a reflex. In dreams, the person is not making fully free rational choices, yet patterns shaped by character may still influence dream content. Thus dream activity is not fully mechanical, but rather a non-deliberate manifestation of one’s dispositions. In this sense, dreams can reflect the person’s character without the normal governance of reason.
5) Intellect during sleep
During sleep, the soul remains active, but its higher rational operations are curtailed because the brain—the bodily organ supplying phantasms—is no longer functioning in its normal ordered waking state. As a result, the intellect cannot properly engage in abstraction and discursive reasoning. Instead of actively governing thought through ordered rational control, the intellect reacts to the confused and non-linear phantasms presented by the imagination and memory. Thus the intellect is not exercising its proper mode of operation, but functioning in an impaired and fragmented manner.
6) Better phantasms in dreams
The phantasms experienced in dreams may at times be more vivid, imaginative, or novel than those of waking life. This is not due to greater control by the will or intellect, but because the imagination operates with fewer external sensory constraints during sleep, allowing freer associations among images and memories. As a result, dreams can appear highly creative or emotionally intense, yet also more chaotic, unstable, and less governed by truth or rational order.
7) Can the will control phantasms?
(a) When awake
Yes—but indirectly, not directly.
The will cannot create phantasms, but it can:
- direct attention (“think about that scene again”)
- sustain focus
- reject or shift images
Thus, the will guides which phantasms are engaged, but does not generate them.
(b) When asleep
The will largely loses this guiding control, and so dreams unfold without deliberate direction.