La atribución de la eternidad a los modos finitos es una de las cuestiones más difíciles y polémicas de todo el pensamiento spinoziano. Nuestro objetivo en este artículo apunta a elucidar la ...doctrina oscura y polémica de la eternidad de la mente, o más precisamente del entendimiento humano. Esta meta incluye dos propósitos: por un lado, indagar los motivos que determinan el rechazo por parte de Spinoza de concebir la eternidad de la mente en los términos tradicionales de la inmortalidad del alma y, por el otro, comprender qué puede significar que, cuando muere el cuerpo, permanece algo de la mente que es eterno, tal como afirma Spinoza en la proposición 23 de la Quinta Parte.
Taking the cue from some verses of Rilke’s Duineser Elegien, where the poet talks about the distinction between life and death, a distinction which mortals perform too rigidly, in this paper I ...discuss the contrast just between life and death, in order to understand the conditions under which the first truly distinguishes itself from the latter. This happens to the extent that life is also distinguished from the denial of death because otherwise, being the negation a form of necation (nex = killing, murder), the presumed denial of death would reverse in a triumph of death.In the present age this circumstance is particularly evident and significant, since humanity aims at a technological realization of im‑mortality, understood as the denial of death. To the extent that this remains a negative operation, it takes the form of the scrapping of mortals. True liberation/salvation from death presupposes that the negation itself is called into question. Only on this condition, in fact, is possible a life free from any form of necation. This freedom presupposes, inter alia, a “non” education, intended as an education to be able to freely play with the negative of death and denial.
In the first half, I suggest that Kant’s conception of our moral life goes through a significant shift after 1793, with reverberations in his eschatology. The earlier account, based on the postulate ...of immortality, describes our moral life as an endless pursuit of the highest good, but all this changes in the later account, and I point out three possible reasons for this change of heart. In the second half, I explore how the considerations Kant brings up to argue for his accounts can inform our process of formulating positions with respect to the afterlife. I argue that, in the absence of a convincing theoretical proof for or against the afterlife as well as apodictically certain knowledge of how demanding the moral law is, the Kantian strategy would be to ask which account of our moral life delivers the kind of contentment that can sustain our moral resolve. I also point out a way theists might be able to find contentment despite their moral failures by imagining God’s moral kenosis.
This paper sets out to examine how the first-person plural narration form is used in diasporic Chinese American writer Yiyun Li’s short story “Immortality” to represent the collective loss of ...subjectivity – namely how she represents the consequences of that loss from a psychological perspective as part of her experiment in artistic innovation. It explores Li’s characterization – especially her realistic depiction of the collective narrators’ psychology under totalitarianism and how she allows their psychology to affect the form of her representation. I argue that although through the ventriloquy in English, Li has given the “we”-narrators a discursive voice to articulate their hidden thoughts and feelings – something not possible in their mother tongue, the “we”-narrators are unable to exceed their existential limitations to speak a purely personal language immune from official appropriation. Li’s story also underlines the extreme form as well as the emotional consequences of that collective loss of subjectivity, namely the “we”-community’s avoidance of mass melancholia in reaction to the tragic end of their compatriot victim of the dictatorship in order to preserve their prevailing collective ego-ideal.
The attainment of longevity and immortality, long a theme of fairy tales and myths, has now become a real-world quest. Scientists, innovators, and elite Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are engaged in an ...epic mission to transcend mortal limits and defeat death using innovative biomedical technologies. From cryonics and plasma infusion to genetic editing and mind uploading, the development of such technologies has been gaining momentum in recent years. Such biomedical advances in longevity and immortality, if successful, will have implications not only for individuals but also for society. Given their exponential growth as a target of commercial investment, it is crucial to address the potential bioethical and ecological issues these technologies pose within the ecosystem.
L’atteinte de la longévité et de l’immortalité, longtemps un thème des comptes de fées et des mythes, est maintenant devenue une quête dans le monde réel. Les scientifiques, les innovateurs et l’élite des entrepreneurs de la Silicon Valley sont engagés dans une mission spectaculaire pour transcender les limites de la vie mortelle et vaincre la mort grâce à des technologies biomédicales innovantes. De la cryogénisation à l’infusion de plasma en passant par la modification du génome et le téléchargement de l’esprit, le développement de telles technologies s’est accéléré au cours des dernières années. Ces avancées biomédicales en matière de longévité et d’immortalité, si elles aboutissent, auront des conséquences non seulement pour les individus, mais aussi pour la société. Compte tenu de leur croissance exponentielle en tant qu’objectif d’investissement commercial, il est essentiel de se pencher sur les problèmes bioéthiques et écologiques potentiels que ces technologies posent au sein de l’écosystème.
The article focuses on a change in the understanding of death. Transhumanism is here understood as a reaction to the technicization of culture. One of the areas which are declared to be transcended ...by technology is human mortality. Analysis of such a change is conducted to show that one does not need a working technology that abolishes death, but that the change could be cultural and have significant impact on human life. This process of transcending death with the usage of technology is understood as a fictionalization of death. The philosophical and cultural outcomes are analyzed for human existence.
The heristic argument with which Meno questions the possibility of inquiry and knowledge is tackled by Socrates through the reference to an archaic and religious doctrine, according to which the soul ...is immortal and has seen all things. Through this reference Socrates actually wants to affirm the affinity between the soul and the world of forms. So behind the myth of the prenatal vision of forms by the soul Plato intends to assert the ontological condition of the soul, that is, its affinity to forms.
This study aims to discuss the people's understanding of the immortality of pious people in the funeral complex of Lasem Jami’ mosque, and the values embodied in the surrounding community’s daily ...lives. Based on the phenomenological approach, wherein data is obtained through participant observation and in-depth interviews, the results show that people's belief in immortality is based on their beliefs on the person’s piety, both ritually and socially. It can be seen from the community ways to always put the pious person in an honorable position, through various rituals such as pilgrimage, haul, selametan, and tawasulan. The community beliefs on good deeds will not be broken off after people’s death, becoming their basis to understand in immortality. Immortality can only be obtained by people who can control their bodies and reduce their egos (tazkiyyatun nafs). Immortal pious people are understood to have power and will after their death. This immortal power is believed to be able to provide blessings for the prayers they offered. The ability of the pious people to "accept" the demand is permeable indicates the existence of an immortal will. Hereby, emerge the ethical values, blessing, and multiculturalism in the daily life practices of the surrounding communities.
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