Table of Contents

Preface: What This Book Is (Not) About
Acknowledgements
General Introduction: What Is the Meaning of “Life”?
For Discussion or Essays
Further Readings on Brains, Death, and “Consciousness”

Part I: Our Immortal Souls
Introduction to Part One: Personal Survival and Immortality
1. The Soul Will Not Fade Away (from Phaedo, c. 360 BC)
Plato
2. Letter to Menoeceus (third century BC)
Epicurus
3. Ten Reasons for Believing in Immortality (1929)
John Haynes Holmes
4. Next Stop Goofville (1929)
Clarence Darrow
5. Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity (1994)
Thomas W. Clark
For Discussion or Essays
Further Readings on Personal Survival and Immortality

Part II: Rebirth
Introduction to Part Two: Survival in a Different Body
6. The Katha Upanishad: Death as a Teacher (fifth cen. B.C.)
Anonymous
7. The Questions of King Milinda (first cen. AD?)
Anonymous
8. The World Outlook of the People (14th cen.)
Madhava Acharya
9. Nirodha, the Cessation of Dukkha (1959)
Walpola Rahula
For Discussion or Essays
Further Readings on Rebirth

Part III: Resurrection and the Afterlife
Introduction to Part Three: Resurrection and the Afterlife
10. Resurrection of the Same Body (13th century)
Aquinas, Thomas
11. Of a Particular Providence and of a Future State (1739-40)
David Hume
12. The Soul Survives and Functions after Death (1973)
H.H. Price
13. Persons and the Metaphysics of Resurrection (2007)
Lynne Rudder Baker
For Discussion or Essays
Further Readings on Resurrection and the Afterlife

Part IV: Problems with Immortality
Introduction to Part Four
14. On Mortality and the Soul (c. 50 B.C.)
Lucretius
15. The Hunger of Immortality (1913)
Miguel de Unamuno
16. The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality (1972)
Bernard Williams
17. Immortality without Boredom (2009)
Lisa Bortolotti and Yujin Nagasawa
18. Death and Eternal Recurrence (2013)
Lars Bergström
For Discussion or Essays
Further Readings on Problems with Immortality and the Eternal Return

Part V: Living with Mortality
Introduction to Part Five: Living with Mortality
19. “Supreme Happiness” (Fourth cen. B.C.)
Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi)
20. Death (1986)
Thomas Nagel
21. The Collective Afterlife (2013)
Samuel Scheffler
22. The Significance of Doomsday (2013)
Susan Wolf
23. Death, Failure, and Neoliberal Ideology (2016)
Beverley Clack
For Discussion or Essays
Further Readings on Living with Mortality

Readings that appear in this book
Index

Promotional Information

A cross-cultural introduction to a broad range of thinking about death in ancient, modern, contemporary Western and Asian philosophy.

About the Author

Markar Melkonian is Lecturer in Philosophy at California State University Northridge, USA.

Reviews

This new multicultural collection covers all the major themes in the philosophy of death from classical antiquity to the contemporary period. The readings are wisely chosen, and the volume is intelligently laid out with clear and helpful contextual introductions to each section and selection. Highly recommended for individual readers and classroom assignment.
*Levon Chorbajian, Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, USA*

This is an excellent collection of primary source material on key topics in the philosophy of death, such as the nature of post-death existence and the (un)desirability of immortality. The selections, which represent ancient and contemporary thinkers from primarily Western and Indian philosophical traditions, are thoughtfully organized and given helpful and accessible introductions and annotations by the editor. This book is very well-suited for undergraduate courses in the philosophy of death, as it skillfully presents thought-provoking debates carried on across the centuries and invites students to join.
*Mark Berkson, Professor of Religion, Hamline University, USA*

A timely and wide-ranging collection that covers the classic discussions through to the contemporary on a theme that we might well like to ignore, but cannot: the facts of own mortality. The introductions to each section helpfully position the papers. A must-read for every student of death.
*Beverley Clack, Professor in the Philosophy of Religion, Oxford Brookes University, UK*