The immortality requirement for life's meaning

Ratio 16 (2):161–177 (2003)
Abstract Many religious thinkers hold the immortality requirement, the view that immortality of some kind is necessary for life to have meaning. After clarifying the nature of the immortality requirement, this essay examines three central arguments for it. The article establishes that existing versions of these arguments fail to entail the immortality requirement. The essay then reconstructs the arguments, and it shows that once they do plausibly support the immortality requirement, they equally support the God-centred requirement, the view that God's existence is a necessary condition for life to be meaningful. The paper concludes by explaining why we should expect any argument for the immortality requirement also to constitute an argument for the God-centred requirement.
Keywords No keywords specified (fix it)
Categories
Options
 Save to my reading list
Follow the author(s)
My bibliography
Export citation 		Find it on Scholar
Edit this record
Mark as duplicate
Revision history Request removal from index
 
Download options
PhilPapers Archive


Upload a copy of this paper     Check publisher's policy on self-archival     Papers currently archived: 5,865
External links
  •   Try with proxy.
    		•
    Through your library Configure

    Similar books and articles
    Aaron Smuts (2011). Immortality and Significance. Philosophy and Literature 35 (1):134-149.
    Lisa Bortolotti & Yujin Nagasawa (2009). Immortality Without Boredom. Ratio 22 (3):261-277.
    Andrew McLaughlin (1970). Rationality and Total Evidence. Philosophy of Science 37 (2):271-278.
    Norman Cousins (1974/1991). The Celebration of Life: A Dialogue on Hope, Spirit, and the Immortality of the Soul. Bantam Books.
    Thomas Cathcart (2009). Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates. Viking.
    Aaron Smuts (2008). Wings of Desire: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality. Film and Philosophy 13 (1):137-151.
    Joanna K. Forstrom (2010). John Locke and Personal Identity: Immortality and Bodily Resurrection in 17th-Century Philosophy. Continuum.
    John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (1916/1985). Human Immortality and Pre-Existence. Kraus Reprint.
    William Ernest Hocking (1937/1973). The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience. Westport, Conn.,Greenwood Press.
    Tamara Monet Marks (2010). Kierkegaard's "New Argument" for Immortality. Journal of Religious Ethics 38 (1):143-186.

    Analytics

    Monthly downloads

    Added to index

    2009-01-28

    Total downloads

    84 ( #9,133 of 556,803 )

    Recent downloads (6 months)

    5 ( #16,099 of 556,803 )

    How can I increase my downloads?


    My notes
    Sign in to use this feature


    Discussion
    Start a new thread
    Order:
    		There  are no threads in this forum
    Nothing in this forum yet.

    Other forums




    Applied ethicsEpistemologyHistory of Western PhilosophyMeta-ethicsMetaphysicsNormative ethics
    Philosophy of biologyPhilosophy of languagePhilosophy of mindPhilosophy of religionScience Logic and MathematicsMore ...
    Home | New books and articles | Bibliographies | Philosophy journals | Discussions | The Categorization Project | About PhilPapers | API | Contact us

    Hosted by The Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
    This site uses Google Analytics (see our terms & conditions for details regarding the privacy implications).

    Use of this site is subject to terms & conditions.
    All rights reserved by David Bourget and David Chalmers

    Page generated Tue Jun 18 22:01:43 2013 - Hash code: bRAsrB5PGDZBM1NWuiUiPQ