Death and Immortality

206 Pages·1987·9.219 MB·English

by  Roy W. Perrett

DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
1. FREUND, E.R. Franz Rosenzweig's Philosophy of Existence: An Anal
ysis of The Star of Redemption. 1979. ISBN 90 247 2091 5.
2. OLSON, A.M. Transcendence and Hermeneutics: An Interpretation of
the Philosophy of Karl Jaspers. 1979. ISBN 90 247 2092 3.
3. VERDU, A. The Philosophy of Buddhism. 1981. ISBN 90 247 2224 1.
4. OLIVER, H.H. A Relational Metaphysic. 1981. ISBN 90 247 2457 0.
5. ARAPURA, J.G. Gnosis and the Question of Thought in Vedanta.
1986. ISBN 90 247 3061 9.
6. HOROSZ, W. and CLEMENTS, T. Religion and Human Purpose. 1986.
ISBN 90 247 3000 7.
7. SIA, S. God in Process Thought. 1985. ISBN 90 247 3103 8.
8. KOBLER, J .F. Vatican II and Phenomenology. 1985.
ISBN 90 247 3193 3.
9. GODFREY, 1.1. A Philosophy of Human Hope. 1986.
ISBN 90 247 3353 7.
10. PERRETT, R.W. Death and Immortality. 1987. ISBN 90 247 3440 1.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
ROY W. PERRETT
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
lit..~
1987 Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. ' '
Distributors
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Perrett, Roy W.
Death and immortality.
(Studies in philosophy and religion 10)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Death. 2. Immorality. I. Title. II. Series:
Studies in philosophy and religion v. 10.
BD444.P469 1986 129 86-23769
ISBN 978-94-010-8077-4 ISBN 978-94-009-3529-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-009-3529-7
Copyright
© 1987 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff Pub1ishers, Dordrecht in 1987.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1987
Ali rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publishers,
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
In Memoriam
Jim Harvie
PREFACE
The research for this work was undertaken during my tenure of a Senior Tutor
ship in the Faculty of Arts and Music at the University of Otago (1983-85). Versions
of some of the chapters herein have already been accepted for publication in the form
of journal articles in Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, Sophia, and Religious
Studies. My thanks to the editors and publishers concerned for permission to reuse this
material.
A number of people have assisted me in various ways. My greatest debt is to
Graham Oddie, who supervised my doctoral research in this area and with whom I
have had the benefit of innumerable discussions on these and other philosophical
matters. I am very grateful for all I have learned from him. I would also like to thank:
Bob Durrant for commenting helpfully on Chapter 2; the late Jim Harvie, both for his
valuable suggestions (particularly regarding the material of Chapter 4) and for his
encouraging enthusiasm for the whole project; George Hughes for his extensive
comments on the whole work; and (for various points of detail) Alan Musgrave,
Charles Pigden and Bryan Wilson. Despite much good advice, however, I have some
times preferred to go my own way, recalling Blake's proverb: "If the fool would
persist in his folly he would become wise."
With regard to the typing of the manuscript I am indebted to the word-processor
wizardry of Jane Tannahill and Christine Colbert. Most particularly, however, I am
grateful to Bryan Wilson for all his efforts in preparing the camera-ready copy of this
work.
Finally, my love and special thanks to Val, Sara and Anna for putting up with it
all.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction 1
PART ONE: DEATH
Chapter 1: Death 7
Chapter 2: "My Death" 25
Chapter 3: The Fear of Death 46
Chapter 4: Death and the Meaning of Life 67
PART TWO: IMMORTALITY
Chapter 5: Immortality 87
Chapter 6: Disembodied Existence 107
Chapter 7: Resurrection 131
Chapter 8: Rebirth 149
Postscript 171
Appendix: Karma and the Problem of Suffering 173
Selected Bibliography 181
Index 197
INTRODUCTION
In The World as Will and Representation Schopenhauer writes:
Death is the real inspiring genius or Musagetes of philosophy, and for this
reason Socrates defined philosophy as eava'tou f.l£AE't11 [preparation for
death]. Indeed, without death there would hardly have been any
philosophizing (II, 463).
For this to be plausible it would have to be added that death is most often the
unconscious muse of philosophy; certainly it is difficult to see much contemporary
professional philosophy as standing squarely within the Socratic tradition Schopen
hauer here alludes to. This work, however, is self-avowedly inspired by death. It
discusses a number of philosophical problems of death and immortality: particularly
certain questions in metaphysics, ethics and philosophy of religion which naturally
arise from philosophical reflection upon these matters. However since philosophical
concepts and arguments are embedded in a network of other concepts and arguments,
the inquiry sometimes involves both the consideration of issues in other areas of
philosophy (including epistemology and metaphilosophy) and in areas other than
philosophy (including literature, theology and religious studies).
Concern with death and immortality is, of course, universal and hence the
literature is enormous. Obviously I could not discuss everything, even if per
impossibile I had read it all. The principles governing my choice of material are
largely generated by the philosophical style I work in, i.e. the style of the analytic
tradition that dominates contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. Thus although
the great Western philosophers are often mentioned, their positions receive little
historical attention. Similarly, except for a brief reference to Heidegger, I do not
discuss recent Continental philosophers at all. Rather I usually prefer to develop
positions with particular reference to contemporary discussions in the analytic
tradition. This is not because I believe that the great figures of the past have nothing to
2 DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
say to us on these issues; nor do I mean to denigrate recent Continental contributions.
However this work is primarily conceived of as an attempt to demonstrate the
relevance of the methods of analytic philosophy for traditional philosophical concerns
about death and immortality. Until quite recently many analytic philosophers too
often regarded such concerns as falling outside of the competence of philosophy.
Fortunately there are now signs of an increasing openness to such questions among
more and more philosophers within the analytic tradition. This work is an attempt to
foster this trend. Of course, there is a danger that the constraints thus imposed upon
the inquiry will render the resulting work too parochial. I have deliberately attempted
to rectify any such tendency to narrowness by introducing some sorts of relevant
material from outside of the usual ambit of analytic philosophy. In particular, I not
only discuss literary and theological works, but I also give detailed consideration to
concepts and arguments drawn from the Indian philosophical tradition. My aim is to
show both that such material has important insights to contribute and also that it is in
fact amenable to rigorous examination.
It will perhaps be convenient before we begin the inquiry proper to offer an
outline of the overall structure of the argument. Briefly, this work divides into two
parts: the first part discusses philosophical problems about death that arise for
everyone, regardless of his or her stance on immortality; the second part focuses on
the notion of immortality and the major traditional accounts of this. Chapter 1
presents a discussion of the concept of death (including the troubled question of
"defining" death) and considers the epistemic status of our knowledge of death.
Chapter 2 considers Li.e claim that it is impossible to imagine one's own death and what
the significance of this might be if it is indeed true. Chapter 3 argues that (contra the
Epicurean tradition) the fear of death is rational under certain conditions. Chapter 4
discusses some more general questions about the relation of death to the meaning of
life, arguing by way of a consideration of Tolstoy's A Confession and The Death of
Ivan Ilych that immortality is not a necessary condition for the meaningfulness of life.
Chapter 5 argues that immortality is not a sufficient condition for the meaning
fulness of life either. Of course, "eternal life" has typically referred to a transformed
quality of life in the hereafter according to most religious thinkers. Some writers,