Question

Shabbat shalom, Michi. The view of many medieval authorities (Rishonim) is well known, foremost among them Gersonides (he at least addresses this directly and clearly), that a person’s thoughts and experiences (what is called in secular language “the acquired intellect”) are themselves his soul, and they do not go anywhere when a person dies. This theory has many practical implications regarding principles of faith / belief: whether one who denies them has no share in the World to Come as a form of “punishment,” or whether this is simply the reality—that his intellect did not grasp eternal thoughts and therefore is not eternal.

In any case, I would like to ask whether you accept this theory, and if not, why not; and what is the surviving soul, if not the above.