What the hell is a 'soul' anyway?

[Mudhammam]

This is a series of questions I always ask when people start talking about souls. I'd like to collect the local soul-believers' answers on this topic, but if you don't believe in souls, feel free to add more questions.

What is a soul?

What is it made of?

Does it interact with the material world?

If it does, how can we measure its activity based on its interactions with the material world?

If it doesn't, what does it explain that can't be better explained by a materialist solution?

1. The self; the faculty through which apprehension of sense data forms experiences that cohere and possess meaning.
2. Nothing that can be defined beyond calling it abstract... abstract-stuff? ...Which leaves it as, if not more, peculiar as getting to the bottom of whatever it is this matter-stuff is made of... because it's abstract. And thinking about the abstract in the abstract is hard.
3. Yes, in that it renders the material world rational, beautiful, and good to itself.
4. It remains to be discovered if the tools of science and philosophy, developed by the successive toil of selves actuating thoughts, will ever be capable of granting knowledge in full.
5. What is matter? What is it made of? How does it interact with the abstract? If it does, how can we measure its activity based on - or vice versa, apart from - its interactions with the abstract? If it doesn't, why should anyone feel the urge to commit to a dogma which only allows matter - whatever that is - to exist?