Summary
Is there life after death or do we simply cease to exist? Renowned scholar Paul Edwards has compiled Immortality, a superb group of philosophical selections featuring the work of both classical and contemporary authors who address the topics of immortality, soul and body, transmigration, materialism, epiphenomenalism, physical research and parapsychology, reincarnation, disembodied existence, and much more.
In addition to a 70-page editorial introduction offering an in-depth discussion of the forms which belief in immortality has taken, this volume includes selections from Thomas Aquinas, A.J. Ayer, Paul and Linda Badham, John Beloff, C.D. Broad, Joseph Butler, Rene Descartes, C.J. Ducasse, Paul Edwards, Hugh Elliot, Antony Flew, John Foster, Peter Geach, John Hick, John Hospers, David Hume, William James, Raynor Johnson, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Lucretius, Donald MacKay, John Stuart Mill, Derek Parfit, Plato, H.H. Price, Joseph Priestley, Thomas Reid, Tertullian, Peter van Inwagen, and Voltaire.
Table of Contents
| Introduction |
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1 | (72) |
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1. The Release of the Soul from the Chains of the Body |
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73 | (10) |
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2. The Mind and the Spirit Will Die |
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83 | (5) |
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3. The Refutation of the Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration |
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88 | (3) |
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4. The Resurrection of Man |
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91 | (9) |
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5. The Incorporeal Soul and Its Body |
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100 | (9) |
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6. Personal Identity, Consciousness and the Immaterial Substance |
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109 | (12) |
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121 | (9) |
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130 | (4) |
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9. Of the Immortality of the Soul |
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134 | (7) |
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10. The Soul, Identity and Immortality |
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141 | (7) |
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11. Of the Nature and Origin of Our Notion of Personal Identity |
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148 | (7) |
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12. Refutation of Mendelssohn's Proof of the Permanence of the Soul |
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155 | (2) |
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13. Materialism, Personal Identity and Life |
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157 | (15) |
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172 | (5) |
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15. The Theory of the Soul |
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177 | (7) |
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184 | (2) |
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17. The Objections to Epiphenomenalism |
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186 | (2) |
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18. Preexistence, Reincarnation and Karma |
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188 | (6) |
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19. Survival As Transmigration |
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194 | (6) |
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200 | (13) |
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21. What Kind of Next World? |
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213 | (7) |
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22. The Cartesian Assumption |
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220 | (5) |
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225 | (10) |
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24. The Recreation of the Psycho-Physical Person |
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235 | (7) |
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25. The Possibility of Resurrection |
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242 | (5) |
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26. Computer Software and Life After Death |
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247 | (3) |
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27. The Evidence from Psychical Research |
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250 | (9) |
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28. Is There Anything Beyond Death? A Parapsychologist's Summation |
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259 | (10) |
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29. What I Saw When I Was Dead |
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269 | (7) |
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30. On Survival without a Body |
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276 | (3) |
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31. Is the Notion of Disembodied Existence Intelligible? |
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279 | (3) |
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32. Consciousness, the Brain and Immortality |
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282 | (10) |
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33. The Dependence of Consciousness on the Brain |
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292 | (16) |
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34. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons |
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308 | (8) |
| Bibliographical Essay |
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316 | |