A Reply to Anders Mind, Mortality and Material Being: van Inwagen and the Dilemma of Material Survival of Death
In his paper Mind, Mortality and Material Being Paul Anders attempts to show that Peter van Inwagens materialist metaphysics of the human person, combined with the belief that human persons survive death, faces a dilemma. Either, on the one hand, van Inwagen has to accept an account of the surviv...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Springer Netherlands
[2015]
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In: |
Sophia
Year: 2015, Volume: 54, Issue: 4, Pages: 577-592 |
RelBib Classification: | NBC Doctrine of God NBE Anthropology VA Philosophy |
Further subjects: | B
van Inwagen
B Death B Metaphysics B Materialism B Personal Identity |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | In his paper Mind, Mortality and Material Being Paul Anders attempts to show that Peter van Inwagens materialist metaphysics of the human person, combined with the belief that human persons survive death, faces a dilemma. Either, on the one hand, van Inwagen has to accept an account of the survival of human persons across death that cannot escape the duplication objection (§1.2), or, on the other hand, van Inwagen has to accept an account of the survival of human persons across death that entails the possibility of that which is logically impossible and, in consequence, renders his metaphysics necessarily false (§2). This paper is concerned with the second horn of the dilemma. In this paper, I will attempt to do two things. First, I will attempt to show that Anders description of van Inwagens naked kernel (van Inwagen 2009, 329) account of the survival of human persons across death is, at times, unclear, before, second, attempting to demonstrate that there is a response that van Inwagen could give to Anders argument regardless of these unclarities. Consequently, I think that, at least until Anders description is made clearer, and until Anders tells us why van Inwagen cant opt for the solution I propose, we should consider van Inwagens inclination that God can preserve a kernel that is sufficient for the survival of human persons across death to be unharmed by Anders argument. |
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ISSN: | 1873-930X |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Sophia
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11841-015-0508-7 |