I like the way Tim Powers handles it in some of his novels. In them a ghost is a kind of ethereal 'shadow' cast by a traumatic experience. Which can be death, or another less fatal event, which can lead to multiple ghosts of the same person walking around!
And as they all start out as shallow copies of the person who spawned them, or at least of their personality but can change as they 'live' and learn, they can all end up with different personalities as well.
They can be changed, but that's not learning, any more than a lead ball "learns" when it's deformed. It will change how it lands, how it rolls, but it did not learn that.
One thought concerning the metaphysics of the story universe is What Is A Ghost?
Is a ghost a Spirit Of The Dead? Is a ghost the emotional "overlay" of a violent death or violent event (not an actual spirit of the dead)?
Of course, the metaphysics might allow for several explanations for a "haunting".
I like the way Tim Powers handles it in some of his novels. In them a ghost is a kind of ethereal 'shadow' cast by a traumatic experience. Which can be death, or another less fatal event, which can lead to multiple ghosts of the same person walking around!
And as they all start out as shallow copies of the person who spawned them, or at least of their personality but can change as they 'live' and learn, they can all end up with different personalities as well.
*blink*
And oooo boy does that raise metaphysical questions. If the beings can grow and learn, are they rational souls? The babies of the dead person?
To use a 21st century analogy, think of them as LLM imitations of the person.
Ah, but those don't learn.
They do if they're set up to.
They can be changed, but that's not learning, any more than a lead ball "learns" when it's deformed. It will change how it lands, how it rolls, but it did not learn that.
Those, of course, would have different levels of implications