Can We Survive Our Own Death
© Tatiana Velitchkov

Death is a natural phenomenon that is inevitable, and as a living thing, we must die. No living thing lives forever. The question is what happens when we die? Is it that when we die we cease to exist or is there an afterlife? Or, when we die is there something somehow about us that survives which makes us live on in another life and not really cease to exist? Anthony Flew addressed these questions from a philosophical angle which is accepted by some people, but some are still doubting his view.

As previously said by Flew, to think of what happens after we die is strange when you think about it. Why is this so? We look at it this way because there are so many inconsistencies on that topic- when somebody die we can at the same time say that the person lives on, or that he lives. Death should be death, it is either you die and cease to exist, or you are injured and not dead. These phenomena are true if you use the normal language.

”For when, after some disaster, the ‘dead’ and the ‘survivors’ have both been listed, what logical space remains for a third category?” These show us that there is a big difference between death and life.

This objection is brought up to explain the claim by those who argue that there is an afterlife, in a more familiar form. The claimants claim that we do not really die, what dies is our body and we as humans should not be recognized with the body. Instead, according to them – there is an inner mind which is immaterial, or soul which is actually our source of experience and life.

According to critics like Flew, it is very wrong to look at it that way, as mind is an abstract thing which cannot be touched or felt. Saying that it is like they are saying a person’s ‘temper’ is also a substance, which when lost it can be left behind if you change your environment. Such theory is difficult to agree with for some, and for them, the theory is not just wrong but not making sense also.

These same assumptions can be seen among people who are trying to analyze what exactly the ‘substance’ of a ‘mind’ is made up of. Identifying a ‘mind’ will not be difficult when it is simply a process or a disposition, but when considered as a ‘substance’ problems begin to arise. Commonly used amongst us is to explain what a mind is by simply saying it’s one’s ‘spiritual activity’

Unfortunately, the right explanation of the mind cannot be seen from the perception of facts of events which has to be explained – otherwise we translate those facts and events and nothing new is gained. A right explanation should go above what we already know. However explaining mind as substance does not do this.
Are we Merely Mortal? Can You Survive Your Own Death?

Those who look at ‘mind’ as ‘substance’ are unaware of anything concerning it beyond what they know now, which they are still trying to explain. They are ignorant of it, how it operates, where it comes from or how it achieves its effects, etc. It therefore astonishes how they say ‘mind’ is ‘substance’ when they find it difficult to back up their theory.

Flew also addresses issue trying to back up the claim that there is some sort of ‘soul’ which makes us have an afterlife when we die. He also addressed earlier day’s arguments by Aristotle, Aquinas and Descartes and not just the present day proofs of existence after death. He also treated the assumptions of “mind as substance” in the modern days as parapsychology.

In summary, these arguments of life after death, mind as substance, is quit complex and even Flews analysis can also be complex. Having some knowledge of philosophy makes it a bit easier to understand.

Anthony Flew on the afterlife – youtube video