- Key People:
- Plato
- Immanuel Kant
- Moses Mendelssohn
- Agostino Nifo
- Li Shaojun
immortality
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What does immortality mean?
In philosophy and religion, immortality is the indefinite continuation of a person's mental, spiritual, or physical existence. Many traditions view immortality as the continued existence of an immaterial soul or mind after the body's death. Belief in a future life has been widespread across cultures throughout history.
The nature of future existence has been conceived in different ways, such as a place of rewards and punishments for conduct on Earth or a continuous cycle of death and rebirth. The Christian hope is not the immortality of the soul but the resurrection of the body.
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How have different religions described immortality?
Different religions have varying concepts of immortality, or continued existence after death. Many religions believe that an aspect of a person, such as the soul, survives death.
In ancient Egypt, the afterlife was an important part of society, with the world hereafter located near the deceased's tomb or in the celestial domain. Zoroastrianism includes a belief in a final overthrow of evil, a general resurrection, a Last Judgment, and the restoration of a cleansed world to the righteous. Islamic doctrine states that on the Last Day the dead will be resurrected and judged.
The Upanishads teach that a soul's new form is dependent on the actions performed in its previous life. This cycle continues until the soul seeks salvation through freedom from earthly desires, ultimately finding liberation from death and rebirth.
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What are some philosophical arguments for or against immortality?
Arguments about immortality have been central to philosophical and religious thought for centuries.
Arguments for:
* Plato argued for the soul's indestructibility, suggesting its non-composite nature prevents disintegration.
* Kant proposed immortality as a necessary condition for achieving moral perfection, demanding endless progress of the soul.
* Christian Philosophers argue the soul's spiritual nature makes it incorruptible and self-sustaining.Arguments against:
* Aristotle did not defend personal immortality, as he believed the soul could not exist without the body.
* Epicureans denied consciousness after death from a materialistic viewpoint.
* Modern philosophical analysis equates mental life with brain function, challenging the concept of an immortal soul.
* Some question the obligation to attain moral perfection, suggesting humans need only do their best, without requiring immortality.3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do beliefs about the afterlife relate to immortality?
Beliefs about the afterlife are closely linked to ideas of immortality. Immortality, in philosophy and religion, refers to the indefinite continuation of a person's mental, spiritual, or physical existence. Many religions share a belief that an aspect of an individual, commonly the soul, survives after death.
Religions that believe in an afterlife generally subscribe to either reincarnation, a cycle of death and rebirth, or eternal life in heaven or hell. The concept of rewards and punishments in the afterlife for one's actions on Earth is found in various traditions, such as Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. Some philosophical arguments, such as those by Immanuel Kant, suggest immortality is essential for achieving moral perfection.
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What is the difference between physical and spiritual immortality?
Immortality, in philosophy and religion, refers to the indefinite continuation of human existence, whether mental, spiritual, or physical.
- Physical immortality involves the continuation of physical existence indefinitely.
- Spiritual immortality is often conceived as the survival of an immaterial soul or mind beyond bodily death. The soul is viewed as the essence of a human being that continues beyond death.
Belief in a future life has been widespread across cultures, though the nature of this existence varies greatly.
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How have ideas about immortality influenced ethics and behavior in societies?
Ideas about immortality have significantly shaped ethics and behavior across societies. Early cultures often lacked a strong ethical connection between earthly conduct and the afterlife. However, many traditions later developed the concept of rewards and punishments in the afterlife based on one's actions in life. For instance, ancient Egypt judged individuals' conduct after death, while Zoroastrians believed in a bridge that the righteous could cross to paradise, and the wicked would fall into hell.
In Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, karma dictates future lives based on present actions. Even secular thinkers acknowledge the importance of morality irrespective of beliefs about the afterlife. The concept of immortality also raises questions about the value of life and the significance of death, influencing discussions on bioethics, personal identity, and responsibility.
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immortality, in philosophy and religion, the indefinite continuation of the mental, spiritual, or physical existence of individual human beings. In many philosophical and religious traditions, immortality is specifically conceived as the continued existence of an immaterial soul or mind beyond the physical death of the body.
The earlier anthropologists, such as Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer, assembled convincing evidence that the belief in a future life was widespread in the regions of primitive culture. Among most peoples the belief has continued through the centuries. But the nature of future existence has been conceived in very different ways. As Tylor showed, in the earliest known times there was little, often no, ethical relation between conduct on earth and the life beyond. Morris Jastrow wrote of âthe almost complete absence of all ethical considerations in connection with the deadâ in ancient Babylonia and Assyria.
In some regions and early religious traditions, it came to be declared that warriors who died in battle went to a place of happiness. Later there was a general development of the ethical idea that the afterlife would be one of rewards and punishments for conduct on earth. So in ancient Egypt at death the individual was represented as coming before judges as to that conduct. The Persian followers of Zoroaster accepted the notion of Chinvat peretu, or the Bridge of the Requiter, which was to be crossed after death and which was broad for the righteous and narrow for the wicked, who fell from it into hell. In Indian philosophy and religion, the steps upwardâor downwardâin the series of future incarnated lives have been (and still are) regarded as consequences of conduct and attitudes in the present life (see karma). The idea of future rewards and punishments was pervasive among Christians in the Middle Ages and is held today by many Christians of all denominations. In contrast, many secular thinkers maintain that the morally good is to be sought for itself and evil shunned on its own account, irrespective of any belief in a future life.
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That the belief in immortality has been widespread through history is no proof of its truth. It may be a superstition that arose from dreams or other natural experiences. Thus, the question of its validity has been raised philosophically from the earliest times that people began to engage in intelligent reflection. In the Hindu Katha Upanishad, Naciketas says: âThis doubt there is about a man departedâsome say: He is; some: He does not exist. Of this would I know.â The Upanishadsâthe basis of most traditional philosophy in Indiaâare predominantly a discussion of the nature of humanity and its ultimate destiny.
Immortality was also one of the chief problems of Platoâs thought. With the contention that reality, as such, is fundamentally spiritual, he tried to prove immortality, maintaining that nothing could destroy the soul. Aristotle conceived of reason as eternal but did not defend personal immortality, as he thought the soul could not exist in a disembodied state. The Epicureans, from a materialistic standpoint, held that there is no consciousness after death, and it is thus not to be feared. The Stoics believed that it is the rational universe as a whole that persists. Individual humans, as the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote, simply have their allotted periods in the drama of existence. The Roman orator Cicero, however, finally accepted personal immortality. St. Augustine of Hippo, following Neoplatonism, regarded human beingsâ souls as being in essence eternal.
The Islamic philosopher Avicenna declared the soul immortal, but his coreligionist Averroës, keeping closer to Aristotle, accepted the eternity only of universal reason. St. Albertus Magnus defended immortality on the ground that the soul, in itself a cause, is an independent reality. John Scotus Erigena contended that personal immortality cannot be proved or disproved by reason. Benedict de Spinoza, taking God as ultimate reality, as a whole maintained his eternity but not the immortality of individual persons within him. The German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz contended that reality is constituted of spiritual monads. Human beings, as finite monads, not capable of origination by composition, are created by God, who could also annihilate them. However, because God has planted in humans a striving for spiritual perfection, there may be faith that he will ensure their continued existence, thus giving them the possibility to achieve it.
The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal argued that belief in the God of Christianityâand accordingly in the immortality of the soulâis justified on practical grounds by the fact that one who believes has everything to gain if he is right and nothing to lose if he is wrong, while one who does not believe has everything to lose if he is wrong and nothing to gain if he is right. The German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant held that immortality cannot be demonstrated by pure reason but must be accepted as an essential condition of morality. Holiness, âthe perfect accordance of the will with the moral law,â demands endless progress âonly possible on the supposition of an endless duration of the existence and personality of the same rational being (which is called the immortality of the soul).â Considerably less-sophisticated arguments both before and after Kant attempted to demonstrate the reality of an immortal soul by asserting that human beings would have no motivation to behave morally unless they believed in an eternal afterlife in which the good are rewarded and the evil are punished. A related argument held that denying an eternal afterlife of reward and punishment would lead to the repugnant conclusion that the universe is unjust.
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In the late 19th century, the concept of immortality waned as a philosophical preoccupation, in part because of the secularization of philosophy under the growing influence of science.