I initially wrote“Would Immortality Be Worth It?” for my Introduction to Philosophy class. It’s a thought-experiment essay for a unit on The Meaning of Life towards the end of the semester. The essay was then published in Objectivity (1:4, 1992, 81-96) and is now online in pdf format.
The issue I take up is this:
When confronted with the fact of their mortality, many thoughtful people conclude that death makes life meaningless. What is the point of life if one is going to be dead soon anyways? Others conclude that only life after death, i.e., immortality, could make life meaningful. Both positions agree that a finite, mortal life is in itself pointless.
Description:
I initially wrote “Would Immortality Be Worth It?” for my Introduction to Philosophy class. It’s a thought-experiment essay for a unit on The Meaning of Life towards the end of the semester. The essay was then published in Objectivity (1:4, 1992, 81-96) and is now online in pdf format.
The issue I take up is this:
When confronted with the fact of their mortality, many thoughtful people conclude that death makes life meaningless. What is the point of life if one is going to be dead soon anyways? Others conclude that only life after death, i.e., immortality, could make life meaningful. Both positions agree that a finite, mortal life is in itself pointless.