Identity and Life after death Flashcards
Ship of theseus
In ancient Greece, there was a legendary king named Theseus who supposedly founded the city of Athens. Since he was a well-regarded king that fought many naval battles, the people of Athens dedicated a memorial in his honour by preserving his ship in the port. This “ship of Theseus” stayed there for hundreds of years, yet, as time went on, some of the wooden planks of Theseus’ ship started rotting away. To keep the ship nice and complete, the rotting planks were replaced with new planks made of the same material. At first, only a single plank need replacing. However, over the coming decades each piece was slowly replaced until none of the original material remained. Is it still the ship of Theseus?
All the cells in your body are replaced every 7 years, are you still the same person you were 7 years ago?
Decartes mind-body problem
Our mind-body problem is not just a difficulty about how the mind and body are related and how they affect one another. It is also a difficulty about how they can be related and how they can affect one another. Their characteristic properties are very different, like oil and water, which simply won’t mix, given what they are.
Socrates
Socrates insisted that for a moral person, death that occurred through no actions of your own (suicide) was a good thing and should be welcomed
When death does come, it is a liberation of the soul.
The soul was in direct opposition to the human body.
At death, the soul would be set free to find true virtue and happiness, the point of its existence.
Epicurus
“while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.”
Since death cannot touch us it cannot be bad. Fear is rational only for something bad.
Epicurus concludes that fearing death is pointless.
Thomas Nagel
Death, according to Thomas Nagel “…is the unequivocal and permanent end of our existence,…”
Consciousness does not survive death in any way, nor is death a particular state of existence
