Williams Arguments On The Existence Of Immortality And Death

Bernard Williams Markopoulos case focuses on the topic of immortality, and the issues that arise from the status of being immortal. This is due to the end of the Markopoulos play, where the protagonist chooses to kill themselves due to the unbearable boredom due to exhausting one’s categorical desires. Williams explains the reason why this occurred, while attacking the concept of immortality. Williams refutes immortality on the premises of a continuous identity, and the future being attractive. Wheras Fischer rejects Williams due to the constraints of his argument, to argue that the immortal life would be a livable one since it reflect a mortal life. in effect, I will further fischer’s argument on the basis that an immortal life would be a

This is on the account of the deprivation argument, and since the argument asserts death is depriving, erego, if it is a sense of deprivement of a infinite amount of goods, then we desire eternal life. However, through the thought experiment of immortality, William rejects the idea of immortality, and argues the immortal agent would become susceptible to two focused problems. The first issue is the agent would become susceptible to eternal boredom, where they would then wish to die. This is because the agent will posess certain categorical that will have been exhausted, or fulfilled(94-5). The categorical desires can be understood as a defining aspect that gives the agent purpose, and propels them in to the future to achieve/succeed these goals (86). Whereas there is conditional (contigent) desires, which can be categorized as the animalistic/hedonistic appetites (sex, hunger, or any simple satisfactory human desires). Additionally, the concept of boredom needs to be unthinkable for the immortal agent, however William proposes the agent would become bored of their environment (95). This is due to the consistency of their individual characteristics, Problematically, the agent has fulfilled their desired life goals, and this leads in to the second problem. Benard Williams explains the second problem is the inevitable change of character over the

The first part (horn) which is the assumed agent has a fixed character over time, however this problematically leads to the boredom situation. This is because Williams asserts the activities the agent possess must be unlimited and stay consistent to the characteristics of the individual. However, Fischer argues against Williams assertion since the immortal agent will not only have one interest, but rather they will have many. Furthermore, Williams argues the immortal agent cannot be bored, and must be absorbed in their surrounding at every moment. Whereas Fischer denies Williams attractiveness dilemma, because his argument is too narrow in thinking, due to the belief that the agent could only be pursuing one categorical desire. Fischer purposes there are packages in the immortal life (as there is in the moral life), which consists of a mixture of interests/goods for the immortal agent. Rather what William proposes, which is a immortal life fixed on a singular good. additionally, Fischer argues an mortal life possesses aspects of boredom so we can continue to obtain further goods. A simple example is waiting for a delayed flight at an airport, when the agent is going on their backpacking trip through Asia. There will be inevitable delays/dulls in any life (261), however these dull moments are short-live and not on the schema of an eternal