Missing, Presumed Not Dead

Samuel Lebens

doi:10.1007/s11406-020-00267-6

Missing, Presumed Not Dead

Samuel Lebens

Department of Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that if we have reason to believe that an immaterial soul exists, then (absent evidence to the contrary) it should be presumed to be immortal. The conclusion is weaker than Socrates’ conclusion that immaterial souls must be immortal, but the argument is stronger, I claim, for having this weaker conclusion. Moreover, a presumption of immortality is significant in its own right.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1043-1050
Number of pages	8
Journal	Philosophia (United States)
Volume	49
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-020-00267-6
State	Published - Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Thanks to Scott Davison, Sandy Goldberg, David Kovacs, Ariel Meirav, Boaz Miller, Daniel Schneider, Saul Smilansky, Danny Statman and an anonymous reviewer for comments and discussion that helped to shape this paper. Thanks also to my friend Tyron Goldschmidt for his disapproval of an earlier draft, which encouraged me to persevere!

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature B.V.

Keywords

Afterlife
Death
Socrates
Souls

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Philosophy

Access to Document

10.1007/s11406-020-00267-6

Cite this

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Missing, Presumed Not Dead

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Cite this