Death and the Afterlife

2013-09-09 Philosophy

Author : Samuel Scheffler
Release : 2013-09-09
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 52X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Death and the Afterlife by : Samuel Scheffler

Download or read book Death and the Afterlife written by Samuel Scheffler. This book was released on 2013-09-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what extent would you remain committed to your current projects and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for cancer? Would couples still want children? In Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show that the continued life of the human race after our deaths--the "afterlife" of the title--matters to us to an astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed, Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Death and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four distinguished philosophers--Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf--who discuss Scheffler's ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final reply.

Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt

2001-04 History

Author : John H. Taylor
Release : 2001-04
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 647/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt by : John H. Taylor

Download or read book Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt written by John H. Taylor. This book was released on 2001-04. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the ancient peoples, the Egyptians are perhaps best known for the fascinating ways in which they grappled with the mysteries of death and the afterlife. This beautifully illustrated book draws on the British Museum's world-famous collection of mummies and other funerary evidence to offer an accessible account of Egyptian beliefs in an afterlife and examine the ways in which Egyptian society responded materially to the challenges these beliefs imposed. The author describes in detail the numerous provisions made for the dead and the intricate rituals carried out on their behalf. He considers embalming, coffins and sarcophagi, shabti figures, magic and ritual, and amulets and papyri, as well as the mummification of sacred animals, which were buried by the millions in vast labyrinthine catacombs. The text also reflects recent developments in the interpretation of Egyptian burial practices, and incorporates the results of much new scientific research. Newly acquired information derives from a range of sophisticated applications, such as the use of noninvasive imaging techniques to look inside the wrappings of a mummy, and the chemical analysis of materials used in the embalming process. Authoritative, concise, and lucidly written, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt illuminates aspects of this complex, vibrant culture that still perplex us more than 3,000 years later.

Life After Death

2010-06-23 History

Author : Alan Segal
Release : 2010-06-23
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 737/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Life After Death by : Alan Segal

Download or read book Life After Death written by Alan Segal. This book was released on 2010-06-23. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A magisterial work of social history, Life After Death illuminates the many different ways ancient civilizations grappled with the question of what exactly happens to us after we die. In a masterful exploration of how Western civilizations have defined the afterlife, Alan F. Segal weaves together biblical and literary scholarship, sociology, history, and philosophy. A renowned scholar, Segal examines the maps of the afterlife found in Western religious texts and reveals not only what various cultures believed but how their notions reflected their societies’ realities and ideals, and why those beliefs changed over time. He maintains that the afterlife is the mirror in which a society arranges its concept of the self. The composition process for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam begins in grief and ends in the victory of the self over death. Arguing that in every religious tradition the afterlife represents the ultimate reward for the good, Segal combines historical and anthropological data with insights gleaned from religious and philosophical writings to explain the following mysteries: why the Egyptians insisted on an afterlife in heaven, while the body was embalmed in a tomb on earth; why the Babylonians viewed the dead as living in underground prisons; why the Hebrews remained silent about life after death during the period of the First Temple, yet embraced it in the Second Temple period (534 B.C.E. –70 C.E.); and why Christianity placed the afterlife in the center of its belief system. He discusses the inner dialogues and arguments within Judaism and Christianity, showing the underlying dynamic behind them, as well as the ideas that mark the differences between the two religions. In a thoughtful examination of the influence of biblical views of heaven and martyrdom on Islamic beliefs, he offers a fascinating perspective on the current troubling rise of Islamic fundamentalism. In tracing the organic, historical relationships between sacred texts and communities of belief and comparing the visions of life after death that have emerged throughout history, Segal sheds a bright, revealing light on the intimate connections between notions of the afterlife, the societies that produced them, and the individual’s search for the ultimate meaning of life on earth.

Death and the Afterlife

1999 Death

Author : Brian Innes
Release : 1999
Genre : Death
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 791/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Death and the Afterlife by : Brian Innes

Download or read book Death and the Afterlife written by Brian Innes. This book was released on 1999. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive look at one of the most fundamental questions of human existence: what is death and what happens to us after we are dead? In the process, the volume presents the arguments for and against life after death, and discusses the afterlife as it is envisioned in countries around the world and across the ages, from Mexico's Day of the Dead to Victorian funeral customs; from the tombs of the pharaohs to cryogenics; and from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to the visions of heaven and hell found in the Bible.

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