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Personal Identity

Immortality

(Text as at 01/03/2018 23:49:55)

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Plug Note₁

• This is a sub-topic of Life after death², the others being:-
  → Resurrection³, and
  → Reincarnation⁴.
  To these historical options we can now add the various hopes of:-
  → Transhumanism⁵
• In the Biblical Christian tradition, God is the only being with natural immortality (see 1 Timothy 6:16 “God … who alone is immortal”, NIV), but Plato (and his Platonising Christian followers) had it that the (human) soul⁶ is also naturally immortal. So, the Biblical view is rather that God gives or denies immortality to whoever he wishes (and there is consequently no need to eternally roast the immortal souls of the wicked).
• St, Paul has it that “the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53, NIV). This is in the context of the resurrection of the just at the return of Christ.
• In the context of identity theory, it is doubtful whether the very same thing can at one time be perishable and at another time immortal, because a thing’s persistence conditions⁷ are taken to be essential properties of the sort⁸ it is, and a single thing cannot change sort.
• As such, (as "Johnston (Mark) - Surviving Death" notes), natural immortality of the soul is the only hope for post-mortem survival. But this hope is itself dashed by the lack of empirical evidence for the existence of the substantial soul, immortal or otherwise.
• It does seem incongruous to talk about post-mortem immortality – how can something that has died be immortal? The idea, no doubt, is that it is the body that the soul occupied that was mortal. Hence, the soul needs a new immortal body to be clothed with. That seems to be the Pauline picture, though debated by the “Conditional Immortality” people.
• The Transhumanists⁹ hope that Uploading¹⁰ to a computer might lead to indefinitely extended life, though this is hardly immortality. Indefinite dentity-preserving life extensions might be possible using repair-microbots.
• In all this, I’m talking about the persistence of the individual¹¹. I’m not talking about “immortality” in the sense of “undying fame”. As Woody Allen quipped₁₂ – “I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment”.
• "Williams (Bernard) - The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality" argues that we wouldn’t even want immortality, but I’m not convinced. However, a bad immortality – uploading to an evil computer, for instance – would be worse than no immortality, though some₁₃ are not even convinced of that. Reading associated with this topic is covered under:-
  → Makropulos Case¹⁴
• Of course, if animalism¹⁵ is the correct account of personal identity, immortality is not on offer, though if the transhumanists¹⁶ succeed, an indefinite extension of life might be possible.
• I have some other notes on this and related topics as part of Philosophy of Religion¹⁷ and my Blog¹⁸, including:-
  → Death and Eternal Life¹⁹,
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read₂₀, include₂₁ the following:-
  1. "Badham (Paul) & Badham (Linda) - Immortality or Extinction: Introduction", Badham
  2. "Cave (Stephen) - Everlasting glory", Cave
  3. "Cave (Stephen) - Remember Herostratus", Cave
  4. "Edwards (Paul) - Dr. Kubler-Ross, Dr. Moody, and the New Immortality Movement", Edwards
  5. "Grossman (Lev), Kurzweil (Ray) - 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal", Grossman
  6. "Kagan (Shelly) - Plato, Part II: Arguments for the immortality of the soul", Shelley
  7. "Kagan (Shelly) - Plato, Part III: Arguments for the immortality of the soul (cont.)", Shelley
  8. "Kagan (Shelly) - Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the immortality of the soul (cont.)", Shelley
  9. "Kagan (Shelly) - The badness of death, Part III; Immortality, Part I", Shelley
  10. "Kagan (Shelly) - Immortality Part II; The value of life, Part I", Shelley
  11. "Perry (John) - A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality", Perry
  12. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Immortality", Shoemaker
  13. "Williams (Bernard) - The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality", Williams
• A reading list₂₂ (where not covered elsewhere) might start with:-
  1. "Badham (Paul) & Badham (Linda) - Immortality or Extinction", Badham
  2. "Barr (James) - The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality", Barr
  3. "Bostock (David) - The Soul and Immortality in Plato's Phaedo", Bostock
  4. "Cullmann (Oscar) - Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?", Cullmann
  5. "Edwards (Paul), Ed. - Immortality", Edwards
  6. "Flew (Antony) - Merely Mortal?", Flew
  7. "Forrest (Peter) - The Tree of Life: Agency and Immortality in a Metaphysics Inspired by Quantum Theory", Forrest
  8. "Gillman (Neil) - The Death Of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought", Gillman
  9. "Hick (John) - Death and Eternal Life", Hick
  10. "Johnston (Mark) - Surviving Death", Johnston
  11. "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death", Martin & Augustine
  12. "Merricks (Trenton) - How to Live Forever Without Saving Your Soul: Physicalism and Immortality", Merricks
  13. "Murray (Michael J.) & Rea (Michael) - Mind, body, and immortality", Murray & Rea
  14. "Nussbaum (Martha) - Mortal Immortals: Lucretius on Death and the Voice of Nature", Nussbaum
  15. "Penelhum (Terence), Ed. - Immortality", Penelhum
  16. "Penny (Michael) - Immortality! When?", Penny
  17. "Tolkein (J.R.R.) - The Lord of the Rings: Part I - The Fellowship of the Ring", Perrett
  18. "Perrett (Roy W.) - Regarding Immortality", Perrett
  19. "Phillips (D.Z.) - Death and Immortality", Phillips
  20. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Immortality and Dualism", Shoemaker
  21. "Sutherland (Stewart R.) - Immortality and Resurrection", Sutherland
  22. "Tipler (Frank) - The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead", Tipler
• This is mostly a place-holder²³.