耶鲁公开课-《死亡》课堂实录英文版2.docVIP

Open Yale Course Philosophy -Death(Professor Shelly Kagan) Lecture 2 Transcript Professor Shelly Kagan: The first question we want to discuss has to do with the possibility of my surviving my death. Is there life after death? Is there a possibility that I might still exist or survive after my death? Now at first glance--and in fact, I think, at second glance its going to turn out to be true--you might think that the answer to this question would depend on two basic issues. Do I survive my death? Do we survive our deaths? You think, the first thing we have to get clear on is well what am I? What kind of a thing am I? Or generalizing, what kind of thing is a person? What are we made of? What are our parts? It seems plausible to think that before we could answer the question, Do I survive? we need to know how Im built. And so the first thing were going to spend a fair bit of time on is trying to get clear on whats a person? What are the fundamental building blocks of a person? The second question that you might think wed want to get clear on is, Whats the idea, or whats the concept, of surviving? Before we ask, Do I survive? we need to get clear on What am I? and What is it to survive? What is it for something that exists in the future to be me? Now this question can be discussed philosophically in quite general terms. Whats the nature of persistence of identity over time? But since were especially interested in beings like us, people, this topic, this sub-specialized version of the question of identity, gets discussed under the rubric of the topic, personal identity. Whats the key or the nature or the basis of personal identity? As we might put it: What is it for somebody whos here next week to be the same person as me? Whats the nature of personal identity? So, as I say, at first glance you might think to get clear on the answer, Do I or might I or could I survive my death? we need to know, what am I? Whats a person? Whats the metaphysical composition of people, on