These models are not necessarily mutually exclusive in fact, most religions have adhered to a combination of them. Three Models of Immortalityĭespite the immense variety of beliefs on immortality, they may be reduced to three basic models: the survival of the astral body, the immaterial soul and resurrection (Flew, 2000). Babe Ruth may be immortal in the sense that he is well remembered, but unless there is someone that may legitimately claim “I am Babe Ruth,” we shall presume Babe Ruth no longer exists and hence, is not immortal. But, philosophically speaking, immortality implies the continuation of personal identity. Thus, baseball player Babe Ruth is immortal in a very vague sense: he is well remembered among his fans. Some people may think of ‘immortality’ in vague and general terms, such as the continuity of a person’s deeds and memories among their friends and relatives. In such a manner, a person may ‘die’ in as much as their body no longer exists (or, to be more precise, no longer holds vital signs: pulse, brain activity, and so forth), but may continue to exist, either in an incorporeal state, with an ethereal body, or with some other physical body. Thus, whoever dies, stops existing nobody may exist after death, precisely because death means the end of existence.įor convenience, however, we may agree that ‘death’ simply means the decomposition of the body, but not necessarily the end of a person’s existence, as assumed in most dictionary definitions. To be immortal is, precisely, not to suffer death. For apparently it makes no sense to say that someone has died and yet survived death. But, if immortality is the continuation of life even after death, a contradiction appears to come up (Rosemberg, 1998).
We usually define it in physiological terms as the cessation of biological functions that make life possible. Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescenceĭiscourse on immortality bears a semantic difficulty concerning the word ‘death’.The Technological Prospect of Immortality.Problems with the Resurrection of the Body.A Brief Digression: Criteria for Personal Identity.Pragmatic Arguments for the Belief in Immortality.More recently, secular futurists envision technologies that may suspend death indefinitely (such as Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, and mind uploading), thus offering a prospect for a sort of bodily immortality. Traditionally, philosophers have considered three main criteria for personal identity: the soul criterion, the body criterion and the psychological criterion.Īlthough empirical science has little to offer here, the field of parapsychology has attempted to offer empirical evidence in favor of an afterlife. However, some immortalists believe that, even if immortal souls do not exist, immortality may still be achieved through resurrection.ĭiscussions on immortality are also intimately related to discussions of personal identity because any account of immortality must address how the dead person could be identical to the original person that once lived. This article examines philosophical arguments for and against the prospect of immortality.Ī substantial part of the discussion on immortality touches upon the fundamental question in the philosophy of mind: do souls exist? Dualists believe souls do exist and survive the death of the body materialists believe mental activity is nothing but cerebral activity and thus death brings the total end of a person’s existence. Although a wide variety of cultures have believed in some sort of immortality, such beliefs may be reduced to basically three non-exclusive models: (1) the survival of the astral body resembling the physical body (2) the immortality of the immaterial soul (that is an incorporeal existence) (3) resurrection of the body (or re-embodiment, in case the resurrected person does not keep the same body as at the moment of death). Immortality has been one of mankind’s major concerns, and even though it has been traditionally mainly confined to religious traditions, it is also important to philosophy. Immortality implies a never-ending existence, regardless of whether or not the body dies (as a matter of fact, some hypothetical medical technologies offer the prospect of a bodily immortality, but not an afterlife). Afterlife is the continuation of existence after death, regardless of whether or not that continuation is indefinite. In common parlance, immortality is virtually indistinguishable from afterlife, but philosophically speaking, they are not identical. Immortality is the indefinite continuation of a person’s existence, even after death.
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