Life After Death Flashcards
Materialism
Minds are not independent of living bodies
Idealism
Only minds really exist, bodies are an illusion
Dualism
We exist as two separable distinct parts- a physical body and a non-material soul. E.G. Plato
Hard Materialists
No life after death
Soft Materialists
Life after death requires the resurrection of the body, which is probably a replica of the body. E.G. Hick
Idealists
The illusion of the physical body ends at death and we continue in spirit form beyond it. E.G. Hegel
Dualists
The soul is immortal and thus continues after the body dies. E.G. Descartes.
Reincarnation
Life is cyclical, not linear, and we are able to be of the flesh multiple times (until Moksha according to Hinduism)
At death the soul is said to leave the body and start off life in another physical body.
Transmigration of the soul
Karma
Used to describe the consequences of individual actions, which cumulatively determine your fate.
Moksha
Nirvana/Nibbana
Evidence to support life after death?
A posteriori concern:
- NDEs
- Regression to past lives
- ‘Sightings’ of dead people
- Spiritualism
A priori arguments for LED
AQUINAS argues that we are made for an ultimate end, happiness, which God will vouchsafe for us in a future life.
KANT argues in his moral argument (summum bonum) that life after death is a necessary postulate of practical reason.
PLATO argues that the soul is immortal because it is imperishable; because the soul is simple, it is therefore indestructible.
Anthony Flew
Argued that the notion of life after death is incoherent:
1. The statement of ‘surviving death’ is self-contradictory
2. Life after death is empirically false
3. ‘People are what you meet’
Bodies plus behaviour.
René Descartes
He believed in the dualistic theory a human being is the sum of the material body (temporal body) and a non-physical mind/soul (permanent essence).
He believed in interactionism, that the mind and body are intimately conjoined, but metaphysically cannot be causally interrelated.
The pineal gland is the site of interaction via ‘animal spirits’.
