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8 - Personal Ontology and Life after Death, Part 1: Resurrection, Reincarnation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Andrew Brenner
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Baptist University
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Summary

This chapter examines whether agnosticism with respect to personal ontology should lead us toward agnosticism with respect to the possibility of life after death. Two afterlife scenarios are considered: resurrection and reincarnation. It is argued that all the major accounts of personal ontology are compatible with both resurrection and reincarnation, except for the non-self thesis, which is incompatible with resurrection. Various arguments for the conclusion that resurrection or reincarnation are impossible are considered and rejected. But it is argued that reincarnation faces a difficulty: the standard evidence cited for reincarnation, namely the presence of mental states apparently from a previous life, would, even if corroborated, not show that one is identical with someone from a previous life. What’s more, it would not provide any evidence for substance dualism.

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Chapter
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Personal Ontology
Mystery and Its Consequences
, pp. 159 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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