Life after the death - personal identity and death

Question 1

John Hick’s replica theory

Answer 1

At death both the body and soul die. Hick argues that given certain circumstances, it would be possible that the dead could exist after death as themselves, if an exact replica were to appear. This replica would be the same as the person who died, according to Hick the same person. This replica will be complete with the same characteristics and memories. Death destroys us but God recreates us.

Question 2

The problem pf personal identity and a replica body - not the same person

Answer 2

Replica is not the original and therefore the individual has not survived death. An art expert would not be prepared to pay millions of pounds for a replica painting of the Mona Lisa.

Question 3

Problem of personal identity - not the same ‘I’

Answer 3

Even if others recognise me in my ‘new body’ and I have the same memories as before I died, many philosophers do not accept that a replica body is still the same ‘I’ that died.

Question 4

Hick and John Smith

Answer 4

John Smith lived in the US, one day his disappeared, a replica Smith appeared in India, according to Hick, this Smith ‘is exactly similar in both physical and mental characteristics to the person who disappeared’. Hick continued by supposing that Smith died, God recreated him in the next world and he was the same.

Question 5

Immortality of the soul - dualist approach

Answer 5

The mind determines our personality and that the body is an outer shell to house the mind/soul. The body is destined for decay but the mind, associated with higher values such as truth and goodness is immortal. If an individual spends life in contemplation of these higher realities then the soul can enter eternity.

Question 6

Immortality of the soul - Descartes

Answer 6

When an individual dies, their soul can continue to exist with God, as the same individual that existed in a physical form on earth.

Question 7

Descartes quote on immortality of the soul

Answer 7

“Our soul is of nature entirely independent of the body, and consequently is not bound to die with it”.

Question 8

Personal identity and an immortal soul - challenges to dualism - Bernard Williams

Answer 8

Is our identity only the result of actions and memories in the mind? If we get a new body then does this have no influence on how we behave? Bernard Williams rejected this conclusion. He argued that memories are not a good guide to identity. Memories can be fabricated so identity cannot be proved through this. He believed that identity came from physical characteristics as well.

Question 9

Personal identity and the immortal soul - challenges to dualism - Modern science

Answer 9

Modern science has shown links between mind and brain so how can the mind survive on its own? surgeons can split the brain and create ‘two minds’. The mind appears to be causally dependent on the brain.

Question 10

‘Sameness of consciousness’ - John Locke

Answer 10

He thought that personal identity consisted neither in sameness of body nor in sameness of soul, but rather in what he called ‘sameness of consciousness’. He claimed that consciousness is enclosed in spiritual substance. An individual should remember enough of their past consciousnesses, and it is this awareness of self in different places that makes personal identity.

Question 11

Locke’s example of the soul of a prince

Answer 11

Soul of a prince is transferred to into the body of cobbler whose soul has departed. The prince still has princely thoughts and his personal identity as prince, even though his body is different. Therefore according to Locke, he is still the prince even though ‘he would be the same cobbler to everyone besides himself’.

Question 12

Scientific theories of consciousness - Penrose

Answer 12

There is a non-algorithmic element to human thought and human consciousness because humans are capable of independent thought. Penrose claims that this is quantum effects in the brain that are the source of our consciousness. He concludes that consciousness is not the product of direct brain activity.

Question 13

The possibility of disembodied existence - Price’s dream world

Answer 13

Price compares the world in which the disembodied soul lives to a dream world. As a dream takes place within its own space and not reality so the soul would have its own space thats not within the physical world. Also just as dreams take place in the mind so the soul in the afterlife would be mind independent.

Question 14

What point is HH Price making with his ‘dream world’?

Answer 14

The experiences in the after life are similar to dreams where we have experiences and are able to perform actions with our dream bodies. In this world we would communicate with other souls through telepathy.

Question 15

Criticism of Price’s dream world?

Answer 15

Hick points out that if in this disembodied existence our desires are to be fulfilled then tension is going to result from conflicting desires. For example if I wish to have dinner with Elvis in heaven this evening but Elvis has a desire to perform a concert this evening, which dream world would we inhabit?

Question 16

Resurrection of the body

Answer 16

Some materialists accept that death is not the end, the physical body and the soul cannot be separated so there is only one way in which this could happen: continuation of the whole body after death. As both the body and soul are needed for life and then the afterlife, then they need to be similar forms, any other form would that the personal identity was not the same.

Question 17

Reincarnation and Hinduism

Answer 17

The atman (soul) is eternal, each soul is at one with the whole of creation. Individuals develop through the cycle of life, death and reincarnation to achieve relief from this cycle and be reunited with the Brahman, this is called moksha

Question 18

Karma

Answer 18

By living in the right way according to faith, a person achieves good karma, but by disregarding the teachings of faith, then bad karma will affect the quality of life. Karma is the relationship between what a person does and what happens to them.

Question 19

Rebirth and Buddhism

Answer 19

They deny souls - it is an ever changing character from rebirth to rebirth (the consciousness), this transferred consciousness is not the same but not completely different, thus there is continuity. Each life interconnects through karma. The ‘I’ is not the person living their life but the Union of all their lives.

Question 20

Personal identity, reinc/rebirth - materialists

Answer 20

Even if the processes were possible, these individuals would enter new bodies, have different brains…so could not have the same PI

Question 21

Near-death experiences as evidence of survival beyond death?

Answer 21

Although no two NDE’s are the same, they share common features, it is generally agreed that they are genuine.

Question 22

Evidence for NDEs

Answer 22

Those who claim to have experienced NDEs have a clear recollection of what they experienced.
The NDE is life-changing, very often people become more interested in the spiritual rather than material.
They occur in all parts of the world and happen regardless of race, age…

Question 23

Dr Atwater quote about NDEs

Answer 23

They have the effects such as “atheists embrace the existence of a deity”.

Question 24

Opposition to NDEs as evidence of post-mortem survival?

Answer 24

‘Near death’ implies they did not die and so the knowledge gained does not contribute to post-mortem existence.
Freudians regard NDEs as hallucinatory wishful thinking to overcome the fear of death.
What they may be experiencing may not be NDEs, its not a question as to whether they are experiencing something, but they actually are experiencing.

Question 25

Hick quote about NDEs

Answer 25

“Do these accounts describe the first phase of another life, or perhaps a transitional stage before the connection between mind and body is finally broken”.