Self, Death and the Afterlife
AQA Requirements
1. The nature and existence of the soul
2. Descartes’ argument for the existence of the soul
3. The body/soul relationship
4. The possibility of continuing personal existence after death
1. The nature and existence of the soul
• Flew - argues against the notion of life after death - argues it’s incoherent because death and life
are mutually exclusive categories - also argued that words associated with personal identity (I,
me, you) must refer to physical beings - this would not be the case after death - they do not refer
to dead people or immortals
• Link to religious language - is it meaningful to talk about life after death - verification principle -
logical positivists would argue it’s not meaningful as it cannot be verified
• Wittgenstein - language game theory - has meaning to those who play the game of religion - if
you’re not in the game you cannot understand
• J Hick - eschatological verification - it can and will be verified when you die - parable of celestial
city
Philosophers thoughts:
• D.Z Phillips - it is better to live the moral life than not to live the moral life - about how you live a
meaningful life in this world which is not defined by where you go in post-mortem existence -
more life is not the point, this life is the point
• Bertrand Russell - fear of death is ‘instinctive’ and the result of this fear is wishful thinking of be-
lief in life after death - people are made up of memories that live in the brain, when the brain dies
the memories do, as does the person
• Marx - Marx linked religious belief to injustice - “opium of the people” an emotional outlet in an
exploitative society
• Sarte - argued that death robs human beings of their meaning/significance so people convince
themselves of their own immortality to evade these feelings of meaningless
• Freud - believed that life after death is rooted in wishful thinking and a product of the human psy-
che
• Epicurus - “for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist”
Dualism: the theory that there exist both bodies and mind, distinct from one another - the body is
contingent/mortal and the mind is immortal - body is less important as it simply carries the soul -
believe in disembodied existence after death - immortality of the soul
Monism/Materialism: the theory that our minds are inseparable from our bodies - human beings are
a single unity of body and mind - the mind’s existence is dependent on the body - reject the idea of
life after death in terms of disembodied existence
Plato:
• Plato says we live in a world of appearances (world of opinions) but the real world is a world of
ideas that he calls forms - world of forms (world of knowledge)
• In the world of appearances when we see a cat we really see the shadow of a perfect cat be-
cause our soul remembers the perfect form - anamnesis
• For Plato knowledge is A PRIORI
• The soul existed before you were born in the world of forms and will continue to exist once you
die - immortal soul, disembodied existence after death
Plato & Dualism:
AQA Requirements
1. The nature and existence of the soul
2. Descartes’ argument for the existence of the soul
3. The body/soul relationship
4. The possibility of continuing personal existence after death
1. The nature and existence of the soul
• Flew - argues against the notion of life after death - argues it’s incoherent because death and life
are mutually exclusive categories - also argued that words associated with personal identity (I,
me, you) must refer to physical beings - this would not be the case after death - they do not refer
to dead people or immortals
• Link to religious language - is it meaningful to talk about life after death - verification principle -
logical positivists would argue it’s not meaningful as it cannot be verified
• Wittgenstein - language game theory - has meaning to those who play the game of religion - if
you’re not in the game you cannot understand
• J Hick - eschatological verification - it can and will be verified when you die - parable of celestial
city
Philosophers thoughts:
• D.Z Phillips - it is better to live the moral life than not to live the moral life - about how you live a
meaningful life in this world which is not defined by where you go in post-mortem existence -
more life is not the point, this life is the point
• Bertrand Russell - fear of death is ‘instinctive’ and the result of this fear is wishful thinking of be-
lief in life after death - people are made up of memories that live in the brain, when the brain dies
the memories do, as does the person
• Marx - Marx linked religious belief to injustice - “opium of the people” an emotional outlet in an
exploitative society
• Sarte - argued that death robs human beings of their meaning/significance so people convince
themselves of their own immortality to evade these feelings of meaningless
• Freud - believed that life after death is rooted in wishful thinking and a product of the human psy-
che
• Epicurus - “for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist”
Dualism: the theory that there exist both bodies and mind, distinct from one another - the body is
contingent/mortal and the mind is immortal - body is less important as it simply carries the soul -
believe in disembodied existence after death - immortality of the soul
Monism/Materialism: the theory that our minds are inseparable from our bodies - human beings are
a single unity of body and mind - the mind’s existence is dependent on the body - reject the idea of
life after death in terms of disembodied existence
Plato:
• Plato says we live in a world of appearances (world of opinions) but the real world is a world of
ideas that he calls forms - world of forms (world of knowledge)
• In the world of appearances when we see a cat we really see the shadow of a perfect cat be-
cause our soul remembers the perfect form - anamnesis
• For Plato knowledge is A PRIORI
• The soul existed before you were born in the world of forms and will continue to exist once you
die - immortal soul, disembodied existence after death
Plato & Dualism:
