- This pseudo-Paper is intended as the mechanism to record time spent on the Note 'Life After Death1' during my Thesis research, as from 2011.
- For the actual time recorded, click on "Paper Statistics" above.
Write-up2 (as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12): Life After Death
Plug Note3
- Thesis Text:
- Here we must discuss possible ways in which post-mortem4 survival5 might be actualised, namely:-
- Resurrection6,
- Reincarnation7, or
- Immortality8 of the Soul9.
- To this list might be added the collection of hopeful possibilities expected by the Transhumanists10.
- We will discuss here broad issues rather than the specifics of the particular options.
- We need to discuss whether life11 after death12 – in the sense of eternal, or at least unending, life – is to be desired, though this can mostly be hived off to the Makropulos Case13.
- I’m not interested in cases of resuscitation, which are commonplace these days. The paradigm cases I’m interested in are after the total – or near-total – destruction of the body14.
- Resuscitation is probably best dealt with under the head of Near Death Experiences15, but see
- "Moody (Raymond A.) - Life After Life", and
- "Moody (Raymond A.) - The Light Beyond".
- Mark Johnston thinks (in "Johnston (Mark) - Surviving Death") that there’s a forensic16 need for post-mortem survival17 of some sort, as otherwise there’s no incentive to be good, and hopes to provide it by a radical redefinition of what the person18 is. But this strikes me as changing the subject.
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death" is a comprehensive sceptical attack on the possibility of post mortem survival.
Further Remarks:
- I have some other notes on this and related topics as part of Philosophy of Religion19 and my Blog20:-
References
- Relevant Works cited above:
- "Johnston (Mark) - Surviving Death", 2010, Book, Read = 13%
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death", 2015, Book, Read = 15%
- "Moody (Raymond A.) - Life After Life", 2001, Book, Read = 4%
- "Moody (Raymond A.) - The Light Beyond", 1988, Book, Read = 3%
- For a Page of Links24 to this Note, Click here.
- Works on this topic that I’ve actually read25, include the following:-
- Aeon:
- "Aeon - Video - What science tells us about the afterlife", 2023, External Link
- "Englert (Alexander T.) - We’ll meet again", 2024, External Link
- "Graziano (Michael) - Endless fun", 2013, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- General:
- "Almeder (Robert) - Death and Personal Survival: Evidence for Life After Death - Preface", 1992
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - Human organisms and the survival of death: a systematic evaluation of the possibility of life after death given animalism", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "Badham (Paul) & Badham (Linda) - Immortality or Extinction: Introduction", 1984
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - When Do Persons Begin and End?", 2005, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "Blackmore (Susan) - And After Death?", 1993
- "Cooper (John) - Body, Soul and Life Everlasting: Preface to the Second Printing", 1989
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Soul, Body and Survival: Introduction - Soul or Body?", 2001
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Thank Goodness!", 2007, External Link
- "Feldman (Fred) - The Survival of Death", 1992
- "Fenwick (Peter) & Fenwick (Elizabeth) - The Truth in the Light: An Investigation of Over 300 Near-Death Experiences", 1995, Book
- "Gasser (Georg) - Personal Identity and Resurrection: Introduction", 2010, Annotations
- "Graham (George) - Death and Identity", 1998
- "Hershenov (David) - Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'", 2007, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "LePoidevin (Robin) - Arguing for Atheism: Preface / Introduction", 1996
- "Lewis (Hywel David) - Persons and Life After Death: Preface", 1978
- "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator: The Continuing Incompatibility of Materialism and Resurrection Belief", 2012, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
- "MacKay (Donald) - Computer Software and Life After Death", 1997
- "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death", 2010, Write-Up Note26, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave", 2015, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "Penelhum (Terence) - Immortality: Introduction", 1973
- "Price (H.H.) - Motives for disbelief in life after death", 1971
- "Price (H.H.) - Two conceptions of the Next World", 1971
- "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Immortality", 2009
- "Stewart-Williams (Steve) - On the Origin of Afterlife Beliefs by Means of Memetic Selection", 2015
- "Thomas (Janice L.) - Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion", 2000, Book
- "Thomas (Janice L.) - Other arguments for dualism", 2000
- "Thomas (Janice L.) - What matters for survival and the logical possibility of resurrection", 2000
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - I Look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the World to Come", 2016, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "Vardy (Peter) & Arliss (Julie) - Life after Death", 2006, No Abstract
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited", 2010, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Christians Should Affirm Mind-Body Dualism", 2004, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Video: Can We Survive Our Death?", 2015
- A further reading list27:-
- General:
- "Almeder (Robert) - Death and Personal Survival: Evidence for Life After Death", 1992, Book, Read = 2%
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - A Reply to Anders’ ‘Mind, Mortality and Material Being: van Inwagen and the Dilemma of Material Survival of Death’", 2015, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
- "Bacchiocchi (Samuele) - Immortality or Resurrection? A Biblical Study on Human Nature and Destiny", 2001, Book, Read = 1%
- "Badham (Paul) - Christian Beliefs About Life After Death", 1976, Book, Read = 1%
- "Badham (Paul) & Badham (Linda) - Immortality or Extinction", 1984, Book, Read = 5%
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife", 2005, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 81%
- "Baltimore (Joseph A.) - Got to Have Soul", 2006, Internal PDF Link
- "Bruntrup (Godehard) - Soul, Body and Survival: The Renaissance of Christian Materialism", 2009, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
- "Caldwell (Christopher M.) - Review - 'Surviving Death' by Mark Johnston", 2010, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
- "Carter (William) - Is there life after Summer-death?", 1983, No Abstract
- "Cooper (John) - Body, Soul and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-dualism Debate", 2000, Book, Read = 23%
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival", 2009, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
- "Corcoran (Kevin), Ed. - Soul, Body and Survival: Essays on the Metaphysics of Human Persons", 2001, Book, Read = 103%
- "Cosculluela (Victor) - Death and God: The Case of Richard Swinburne", 1997, Internal PDF Link, Read = 44%
- "Davis (Stephen T.) - Philosophy and Life After Death: The Questions and the Options", 2000, No Abstract
- "Dilley (Frank B.) - Review of Robert Almeder 'Death and Personal Survival: The Evidence for Life after Death'", 1995, Internal PDF Link
- "Dunne (John S.) - City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality", 1974, Book, Read = 13%
- "Eddebo (Johan) - Death and the Self: A Metaphysical Investigation of the Rationality of Afterlife Beliefs in the Contemporary Intellectual Climate", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 1%
- "Edwards (Paul), Ed. - Immortality", 1997, Book, Read = 4%
- "Flew (Antony), Ed. - Body, Mind and Death", 1964, Book
- "Gasser (Georg), Ed. - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?", 2010, Book, Read = 96%
- "Hales (Steven D.) - Evidence and the Afterlife", 2001, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
- "Hick (John) - Death and Eternal Life", 1996, Book, Read = 1%
- "Johnston (Mark) - Surviving Death", 2010, Book, Read = 13%
- "Kerr (Fergus) - Immortal Longings: Versions of Transcending Humanity", 1997, Book, Read = 1%, Footnote28
- "Kvanvig (Jonathan L.) - Hell", 2007, Internal PDF Link
- "Lewis (Hywel David) - Persons and Life After Death", 1978, Book, Read = 3%
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death", 2015, Book, Read = 15%, Footnote29
- "Merricks (Trenton) - How to Live Forever Without Saving Your Soul: Physicalism and Immortality", 2001
- "Moody (Raymond A.) - Life After Life", 2001, Book, Read = 4%
- "Moody (Raymond A.) - The Light Beyond", 1988, Book, Read = 3%
- "More (Max) & Vita-More (Natasha) - Transhumanism: Engines of Life: Identity and Beyond Death - Introduction", 2013, Read = 100%
- "Oderberg (David) - Survivalism, Corruptionism, and Mereology", 2012, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
- "Ogilvie (Daniel M.) - A Partial History of Afterlife Beliefs", Undated, Internal PDF Link, Read = 8%
- "Penelhum (Terence) - Survival and Disembodied Existence", 1970, Book
- "Penelhum (Terence), Ed. - Immortality", 1973, Book, Read = 7%
- "Plato, Gallop (David) - Phaedo", 1993/1999, Book, Read = 30%
- "Price (H.H.) - The Problem of Life After Death", 1968, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
- "Rawlings (Maurice S.) - To Hell and Back: Life after Death - Startling New Evidence", 1993, Book, Write-Up Note30, Read = 1%
- "Rosenberg (Jay) - 'Life After Death' - In Search of the Question", 1998
- "Seymour (Charles) - A Theodicy of Hell", 2000, Book, Annotations, Internal PDF Link, Read = 1%
- "Sider (Ted) - Hell and Vagueness", 2002, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 22%
- "Silverstein (Harry) - Review of Thinking Clearly About Death by Jay F. Rosenberg", 1984, Internal PDF Link
- "Swinburne (Richard) - The Possibility of Life after Death", 2004, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
- "Tipler (Frank) - Comparison of the Heaven Predicted by Modern Physics With the Afterlife Hoped For by the Great World Religions", 1995
- "Tipler (Frank) - The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead", 1995, Book, Read = 2%
- "Tipler (Frank) - The Physics of Immortality: Preface", 1995, Read = 250%
- "Van Evra (James) - On Death as a Limit", 1971, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
- "Vasalou (Sofia) - Personal identity across temporal gaps: an Islamic view of the problem", Undated, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
- "Wandinger (Nikolaus) - The Rationale behind Purgatory", 2010, Read = 13%
- "Wilson (P. Eddy) - Is Seamless Post-Mortem Existence Necessary for Survival?", 2004, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Personal Identity and the Survival of Death", 2015, Annotations, Internal PDF Link, Read = 42%
- For further papers held on-line of potential interest, follow this Link31. Total papers = 2.
- For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
- Read: No items to list.
- Further Reading: No items to list.
- This is mostly a place-holder32.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 2:
- This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (06/07/2023 00:43:12).
- Link to Latest Write-Up Note.
Footnote 27:
- The categorised reading list includes a lot of material of purely religious interest, the vast bulk of which I’ve ignored
- Even so, the reading list is too long.
Footnote 28:
- Unlikely to have anything to do with resurrection, but I want an excuse for reading the book!
- Maybe belongs to Chapter 8.
Footnote 29:
- I’ve not noted individual papers from this volume, except where I’ve read them.
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026