Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy PDF Author: Alex Long
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107086590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Provides an accessible account of the variety and subtlety of Greek and Roman philosophy of death, from Homer to Marcus Aurelius.

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy PDF Author: Alex Long
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107086590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Provides an accessible account of the variety and subtlety of Greek and Roman philosophy of death, from Homer to Marcus Aurelius.

Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

Immortality in Ancient Philosophy PDF Author: Alex Long
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108832288
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Re-examines the concept of immortality in ancient philosophy from the Presocratics to Augustine.

Immortality and the Philosophy of Death

Immortality and the Philosophy of Death PDF Author: Michael Cholbi
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783483857
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Death comes for us all – eventually. Philosophers have long been perplexed by how we ought to feel about death. Many people fear death and believe that death is bad for the person who dies. But is death bad for us, and if so, how is its badness best explained? If we do not survive death –if death is simply a state of nothingness – how can death be bad for us? If death is bad for us, do we have good reason to live as long as possible? Would an immortal life really be a good human life – or would even an immortal life eventually become tedious and make us long for mortality? This volume presents fourteen philosophical essays that examine our attitudes toward mortality and immortality. The topics addressed have become more urgent as scientists attempt to extend the human lifespan, perhaps even indefinitely. This book invites the reader to critically appraise his or her own attitudes toward death and immortality by exploring the ethical, metaphysical, and psychological complexities associated with these issues.

Immortality

Immortality PDF Author: Stephen Cave
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307884937
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
If you could live forever, would you want to? Both a fascinating look at the history of our strive for immortality and an investigation into whether living forever is really all it’s cracked up to be. A fascinating work of popular philosophy and history that both enlightens and entertains, Stephen Cave investigates whether it just might be possible to live forever and whether we should want to. He also makes a powerful argument that it’s our very preoccupation with defying mortality that drives civilization. Central to this book is the metaphor of a mountaintop where one can find the Immortals. Since the dawn of humanity, everyone – whether they know it or not—has been trying to climb that mountain. But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope, and there have only ever been four paths. Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice of the correct path, and fought wars against those who’ve chosen differently. In drawing back the curtain on what compels humans to “keep on keeping on,” Cave engages the reader in a number of mind-bending thought experiments. He teases out the implications of each immortality gambit, asking, for example, how long a person would live if they did manage to acquire a perfectly disease-free body. Or what would happen if a super-being tried to round up the atomic constituents of all who’ve died in order to resurrect them. Or what our loved ones would really be doing in heaven if it does exist. We’re confronted with a series of brain-rattling questions: What would happen if tomorrow humanity discovered that there is no life but this one? Would people continue to please their boss, vie for the title of Year’s Best Salesman? Would three-hundred-year projects still get started? If the four paths up the Mount of the Immortals lead nowhere—if there is no getting up to the summit—is there still reason to live? And can civilization survive? Immortality is a deeply satisfying book, as optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful about the true arc of history.

The Book of Immortality

The Book of Immortality PDF Author: Adam Gollner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439109435
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
An exploration of one of the most universal human obsessions charts the rise of longevity science from its alchemical beginnings to modern-day genetic interventions and enters the world of those whose lives are shaped by a belief in immortality.

Spinoza's Heresy

Spinoza's Heresy PDF Author: Steven Nadler
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191529974
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
At the heart of Spinoza's Heresy is a mystery: why was Baruch Spinoza so harshly excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community at the age of twenty-four? In this philosophical sequel to his acclaimed, award-winning biography of the seventeenth-century thinker, Steven Nadler argues that Spinoza's main offence was a denial of the immortality of the soul. But this only deepens the mystery. For there is no specific Jewish dogma regarding immortality: there is nothing that a Jew is required to believe about the soul and the afterlife. It was, however, for various religious, historical and political reasons, simply the wrong issue to pick on in Amsterdam in the 1650s. After considering the nature of the ban, or cherem, as a disciplinary tool in the Sephardic community, and a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban, Nadler turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious thought on the postmortem fate of a person's soul. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind and the role that that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical project. Nadler argues that Spinoza's beliefs were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in Jewish rationalism.

Immortality Defended

Immortality Defended PDF Author: John Leslie
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405181389
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Might we be parts of a divine mind? Could anything like anafterlife make sense? Starting with a Platonic answer to why theworld exists, Immortality Defended suggests we could well beimmortal in all of three separate ways. Tackles the fundamental questions posed by our very existence,among them, "why does the cosmos exist?", "is there a divine mindor God?", and "in what sense might we have afterlives?" Defends a belief in immortality, without the need for areligious affiliation or rejection of modern science Explores the ideas of "Einsteinian immortality", the divineafterlife, and the theory of an infinite and divine mind Draws from the work of a wide-range of philosophers, fromancient Greece to the present day, and incorporates up-to-datescientific findings Written in a thought-provoking and engaging manner, accessibleto anyone intrigued by the wonder of our being

Twilight and Philosophy

Twilight and Philosophy PDF Author: Rebecca Housel
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470484233
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
twilight and Philosophy What can vampires tell us about the meaning of life? Is Edward a romantic hero or a dangerous stalker? Is Bella a feminist? Is Stephenie Meyer? How does Stephenie Meyer’s Mormonism fit into the fantastical world of Twilight? Is Jacob “better” for Bella than Edward? The answers to these philosophical questions and more can be found inside Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality. With everything from Taoism to mind reading to the place of God in a world of vampires, this book offers some very tasty philosophy for both the living and the undead to sink their teeth into. Whether you’re on Team Edward or Team Jacob, whether you loved or hated Breaking Dawn, this book is for you! To learn more about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, visit www.andphilosophy.com

Death, Immortality, and Eternal Life

Death, Immortality, and Eternal Life PDF Author: T Ryan Byerly
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100038828X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This book offers a multifaceted exploration of death and the possibilities for an afterlife. By incorporating a variety of approaches to these subjects, it provides a unique framework for extending and reshaping enduring philosophical debates around human existence up to and after death. Featuring original essays from a diverse group of international scholars, the book is arranged in four main sections. Firstly, it addresses how death is or should be experienced, engaging with topics such as near-death experiences, continuing bonds with the deceased, and attitudes toward dying. Secondly, it looks at surviving death, addressing the metaphysics of human persons, the nature of time, the nature of the true self, and the nature of the divine. It then evaluates the value of mortality and immortality, drawing upon the resources of the history of philosophy, meta-analysis of contemporary debates, and the analogy between individual death and species extinction. Finally, it explores what an eternal life might be like, examining the place of selflessness, embodiment, and racial identity in such a life. This volume allows for a variety of philosophical and theological perspectives to be brought to bear on the end of life and what might be beyond. As such, it will be a fascinating resource for scholars in the philosophy of religion, theology, and death studies.

John Locke and Personal Identity

John Locke and Personal Identity PDF Author: K. Joanna S. Forstrom
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441173242
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
One of the most influential debates in John Locke's work is the problem of personal identity over time. This problem is that of how a person at one time is the same person later in time, and so can be held responsible for past actions. The time of most concern for Locke is that of the general resurrection promised in the New Testament. Given the turbulence of the Reformation and the formation of new approaches to the Bible, many philosophers and scientists paid careful attention to emerging orthodoxies or heterodoxies about death. Here K. Joanna S. Forstrom examines the interrelated positions of Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Henry More and Robert Boyle in their individual contexts and in Locke's treatment of them. She argues that, in this way, we can better understand Locke and his position on personal identity and immortality. Once his unique take is understood and grounded in his own theological convictions (or lack thereof), we can better evaluate Locke and defend him against classic objections to his thought.