Waking-up: A neglected model for the afterlife

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 26 (2):209 – 230 (1983)
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Abstract

An inquiry into the possibility that life?after?death be understood as waking from a shared dream into the real world. Attempts to outlaw the possibility that ?really? we are, e.g., vat?brains are shown to lead to unwelcome, anti?realist conclusions about either the world or consciousness. The unsatisfactory nature of empirically observable (Humean) causal connections suggests that real causes may be found beyond the world of our present experience. Though such a story cannot now be proved to be true, we are entitled to entertain it as a serious possibility. An attempt is made to say what life is like in the ?Real World?, whether this be a spatial world like our present one or not, and what moral it holds for our present life. I suggest (like Plato) that there are many levels of waking, and that our ?Real Self should not be identified simply with our present egos

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Stephen R. L. Clark
University of Liverpool

Citations of this work

III. Morals, Moore, and maclntyre.Stephen R. L. Clark - 1983 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 26 (4):425 – 445.
Colloquium 5.Hermann Schibli - 1990 - Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 6 (1):185-194.

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References found in this work

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Ignorance: A Case for Scepticism.Peter K. Unger - 1975 - Oxford [Eng.]: Oxford University Press.
Individuals.P. F. Strawson - 1959 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 14 (2):246-246.
Personal identity.Derek Parfit - 1971 - Philosophical Review 80 (January):3-27.

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