The Astounding Assumption of Infinite Life

Metaphilosophy 50 (3):377-394 (2019)
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Abstract

The multi-millennial philosophical discussion about life after death has received a recent boost in the prospect of immortality attained via technologies. In this newer version, humans generally are considered mortal but may develop means of making themselves immortal. If “immortal” means not mortal, thus existing for infinity, and if the proposed infinite-existing entity is material, it must inhabit an infinite material universe. If the proposed entity is not material, there must be means by which it can shed its material substance and exist nonmaterially. The article examines arguments for how an infinite life would be possible given current physical understanding. The paper considers a Pascalian-style wager weighing the likelihood of adjusting to existence wholly within a finite universe versus betting on there being some way to construe the universe(s) as a viable medium for infinite beings. Conclusion: The case for a finite being to exist infinitely has little viable support.

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Lantz Fleming Miller
University of Twente

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References found in this work

A Treatise of Human Nature.David Hume & A. D. Lindsay - 1958 - Philosophical Quarterly 8 (33):379-380.
The Consolation of Philosophy.Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius - 1957 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Edited by David R. Slavitt.
The Selfish Gene. [REVIEW]Gunther S. Stent & Richard Dawkins - 1977 - Hastings Center Report 7 (6):33.
The fable of the dragon tyrant.N. Bostrom - 2005 - Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (5):273-277.

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