Hume, Descartes, and Nietzsche's Views on Immortality

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Immortality is one of mankind’s major apprehensions, and even though it has been mainly restricted to religious customs. People have different opinions about immortality. Everybody defines immortality differently. For some people it is the survival of the astral body resembling the physical body, for others the immortality of the immaterial soul and lastly the resurrection of the body. Basic definition of immortality is the unknown continuation of a person’s existence, even after death. Immortality primarily referred to soul as it like it does not die when the human body dies, but since they both well connected together, when the body dies, soul dies too; therefore, immortality does not exist.
Hume broadens the evidence of experience shows us that thought and consciousness depends on our bodily existence and; hence, physical death must indicate death of the mind as well. He shows this argument based on three things: metaphysical themes, moral ones, and physical ones. In metaphysical theme, he says that spirit, soul, and mind equally unknown. That is why people need to discover it through experience. He states: “But just metaphysics teach us, that the notion of substance is wholly confused and imperfect, and that we have no other idea of any substance than as an aggregate of particular qualities, inhering in an unknown something. Matter, therefore, and spirit are at bottom equally unknown; and we cannot determine what qualities may inhere in the one or in the other.”(Hume, 97) With that he is trying to say that we have no idea if soul is essentially immaterial or material substance. That is why he is claiming that maybe thinking is something that body does which does not necessarily means that it is separate from the body.
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...the whole body, nevertheless, were a foot or an arm or any other bodily part amputated, I know that nothing would be taken away from the mind” (Descartes, 476) He thought that mind and body cannot be the same material. He gives another argument with the fact that the body has extension in space, and as such, it can be referred to physical things. But the mind has no extension, and thus, it has no physical features. Since body has extension, and the mind does not, then the mind can be considered a distinct material.
In conclusion, there are many ways to prove that soul and body very well linked to each other and they can never detach. They both serve as one function together and one of them cannot exist with another. Hence, when the body dies, soul also dies. Since the soul can decease like the body, that means soul is mortal which means immortality does not exist.

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