Paul S. MacDonald is Lecturer in Philosophy at Murdoch University, Australia.

Exploring the "roads less travelled," MacDonald continues his monumental investigation of the history of ideas. This volume takes the reader from the earliest records about human nature in Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Near East and the Zoroastrian religion, through the secret teachings in the Hermetic and Gnostic scriptures and into the transformation of ideas about the mind, soul and spirit in the late antique and early medieval epochs

Introduction: The Heterodox Tradition in Western Philosophy Chapter 1 Ideas About Human Nature in the Ancient Near East Chapter 2 The Ancient and Medieval Horizon of the Shamanic Soul Chapter 3 Secret Teachings about the Soul in the Post-Classical World Chapter 4 Byzantine Doctrines of Mind, Soul and Spirit Chapter 5 Christian Mystical Ideas About the Soul's Ascent Chapter 6 Magical Ideas about the Soul from Isidore to Goethe, Chapter 7 Plurality of Dualisms and Duality of Life