There are two different conceptions of the soul: materialistic vs spiritualistic.
According to the materialistic view, Man is a machine, a very complex machine indeed but nothing but a machine.
The spiritualistic view by contrast consider the soul as separated from the body and can live outside of it.
I define myself as materialistic.
Take any machine: a lift for example. It is built of molecules put in a certain way, such as the result is its function (soul): to let people get up and down. One can build the same lift or another one, using other material (molecules). This lift will function (live) as the precedent. But no lift can function (run) separately from a given physical lift. In the same way, Man is a machine, constituted of organic cells, among them the neurons which are made of molecules, which are one turn made of atoms... His function (His soul) is that he can walk, run, be sad or happy, thinks. His soul can function in another man (Example: his thoughts can be shared by another man). But no soul (software) can function out of a given body (material). I give spiritualistic people the challenge to prove me the opposite.