I italicized "soul" in an attempt to indicate that I meant it as a symbol. I thought the context made it clear, so I was comfortable using it as a shortcut, but perhaps I miscalculated.
Whoever I see the word soul, in an argument I can otherwise understand… it works and glosses over a lot of complicated common ground.
But if I don’t know what’s going on, it’s as useful as reading “quod erat demonstrandum” at the end of a proof.
It's not an easy thing to summarize or pin down, and it's kind of different for everyone.