The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. It was founded by Benjamin Franklin and is considered the first learned society in the United States.
The society has about 1,000 elected members. As of April 2020,
5,710 members had been inducted since its creation. Through research
grants, published journals, the American Philosophical Society Museum,
an extensive library, and regular meetings, the society supports a
variety of disciplines in the humanities and the sciences.
History
Benjamin Franklin in 1746Library Hall in 2024Thomas Jefferson Garden adjacent to Library HallFranklin Hall at the American Philosophical Hall, named for Benjamin Franklin, the organization's founder
On January 2, 1769, the society united with the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge under the name American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Franklin was elected the first president.
During this time, the society maintained a standing Committee on
American Improvements; one of its investigations was to study the
prospects for a canal to connect the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which had been proposed by Thomas Gilpin, Sr., was built in the 1820s.
Many members of the Society of the Cincinnati were among the APS's first board members and contributors; the APS and SOC still maintain an informal, collegial relationship.
Membership
Membership
of the APS "honors extraordinary accomplishments in all fields." It has
about 1,000 elected members, comprising about 840 "resident" members
(United States citizens or those working or living in the United States)
and about 160 "international" members. As of April 2020 it had elected 5,710 members since its foundation.
In 1786, the society established the Magellanic Premium, a prize for achievement in "navigation, astronomy,
or natural philosophy," the oldest scientific prize awarded by an
American institution, which it still awards. Other awards include the
Barzun Prize for cultural history, the Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Lashley Award for neurobiology, the Lewis Award, and the Thomas Jefferson Medal for distinguished achievement in the arts, humanities, or social sciences.
APS has a collection of indigenous language documents from around
the United States including the ACLS Collection (American Council of
Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages, American
Philosophical Society) recordings of the Odawa language from northern Michigan. APS has created a guide
to help provide broad coverage of the Native American and Indigenous
archival collections at the Library & Museum of the American
Philosophical Society. These materials date from 1553 to 2020 and
include manuscript, audio, and visual materials relating to Indigenous
peoples throughout the Americas.
The society also has a collection of manuscripts on the history
of the British colonies, Revolutionary War, the history of American
science, quantum physics, Charles Darwin and evolution, genetics and the
history of technology.
Philosophical Hall, at 104 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, immediately south of Old City Hall, was built in 1785–1789 to house the society and designed by Samuel Vaughan in the Federal style. A third floor was added in 1890 to accommodate the expanding library, but was removed in 1948–1950, when the building was restored to its original appearance for the creation of Independence National Historical Park.
In 2001, it was opened to the public as The American Philosophical
Society Museum, hosting revolving, thematic exhibitions that explore
intersections of history, art, and science. The museum features works of
art, scientific instruments, original manuscripts, rare books, natural
history specimens, and curiosities of all kinds from the APS's own
collections, along with objects on loan from other institutions.
Library Hall
Reading room for researchers at Library Hall in 2019
In 1789–90, the Library Company of Philadelphia
(LCP) built its headquarters directly across 5th Street from APS. In
1884 LCP sold its building, which was demolished for the expansion of
the Drexel & Company Building in 1887. This building was demolished
in the mid-1950s, during the creation of Independence National
Historical Park.
APS built a library on the site in 1958 and recreated the façade of the old LCP building.
Benjamin Franklin Hall
APS restored the former Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank building at 425–29 Chestnut Street, which was built in 1854–55 to the design of John M. Gries in the Italianate style, to serve as a lecture hall. It is the site of meetings and most major events the society hosts.
Richardson Hall
The Constance C. and Edgar P. Richardson
Hall at 431 Chestnut Street, immediately west of Benjamin Franklin
Hall, is the former Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives and
Granting Annuities Building, which was built in 1871–1873 and designed
by Addison Hutton. It contains offices and the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
Some scientists, futurists
and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human
body, with some suggesting that human immortality may be achievable in
the first few decades of the 21st century with the help of certain technologies such as mind uploading (digital immortality). Other advocates believe that life extension
is a more achievable goal in the short term, with immortality awaiting
further research breakthroughs. The absence of aging would provide
humans with biological immortality, but not invulnerability to death by
disease or injury.
Whether the process of internal immortality is delivered within the
upcoming years depends chiefly on research (and in neuron research in
the case of internal immortality through an immortalized cell line) in
the former view and perhaps is an awaited goal in the latter case.
From at least the ancient Mesopotamians,
there has been a conviction that gods may be physically immortal, and
that this is also a state that the gods at times offer humans. For Christianity the conviction that God may offer physical immortality with the resurrection of the flesh at the end of time, has traditionally been at the very crux of its beliefs. What form an unending human life would take, or whether an immaterial soul exists and possesses immortality, has been a major point of focus of religion,
as well as the subject of speculation and debate. In religious
contexts, immortality is often stated to be one of the promises of
divinities to human beings who perform virtue or follow divine law.
Life extension technologies claim to be developing a path to complete rejuvenation. Cryonics
holds out the hope that the dead can be revived in the future,
following sufficient medical advancements. While, as shown with
creatures such as hydra and Planarian worms, it is indeed possible for a creature to be biologically immortal,
these are animals which are physiologically very different from humans,
and it is not known if something comparable will ever be possible for
humans.
Immortality in religion refers usually to either the belief in physical immortality or a more spiritual afterlife.
In traditions such as ancient Egyptian beliefs, Mesopotamian beliefs
and ancient Greek beliefs, the immortal gods consequently were
considered to have physical bodies. In Mesopotamian and Greek religion,
the gods also made certain men and women physically immortal,whereas in Christianity, many believe that all true believers will be resurrected to physical immortality. Similar beliefs that physical immortality is possible are held by Rastafarians or Rebirthers.
Physical immortality
Physical
immortality is a state of life that allows a person to avoid death and
maintain conscious thought. It can mean the unending existence of a
person from a physical source other than organic life, such as a
computer.
There are three main causes of death: natural aging, disease, and injury.
Such issues can be resolved with the solutions provided in research to
any end providing such alternate theories at present that require
unification.
Aging
Aubrey de Grey, a leading researcher in the field, defines aging as "a collection of cumulative changes to the molecular and cellular structure of an adult organism, which result in essential metabolic processes, but which also, once they progress far enough, increasingly disrupt metabolism, resulting in pathology and death." The current causes of aging in humans are cell loss (without replacement), DNA damage, oncogenicnuclearmutations and epimutations, cell senescence, mitochondrial mutations, lysosomal aggregates, extracellular aggregates, random extracellular cross-linking, immune system decline, and endocrine changes. Eliminating aging would require finding a solution to each of these causes, a program de Grey calls engineered negligible senescence. There is also a huge body of knowledge indicating that change is characterized by the loss of molecular fidelity.
Disease
Disease
is theoretically surmountable by technology. In short, it is an
abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism, something the body
should not typically have to deal with its natural make up. Human understanding of genetics
is leading to cures and treatments for a myriad of previously incurable
diseases. The mechanisms by which other diseases do damage are becoming
better understood. Sophisticated methods of detecting diseases early
are being developed. Preventative medicine is becoming better understood. Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's may soon be curable with the use of stem cells. Breakthroughs in cell biology and telomere research are leading to treatments for cancer. Vaccines are being researched for AIDS and tuberculosis. Genes associated with type 1 diabetes
and certain types of cancer have been discovered, allowing for new
therapies to be developed. Artificial devices attached directly to the nervous system may restore sight to the blind. Drugs are being developed to treat a myriad of other diseases and ailments.
Trauma
Physical trauma
would remain as a threat to perpetual physical life, as an otherwise
immortal person would still be subject to unforeseen accidents or
catastrophes. The speed and quality of paramedicresponse remains a determining factor in surviving severe trauma. A body that could automatically repair itself from severe trauma, such as speculated uses for nanotechnology,
would mitigate this factor. The brain cannot be risked to trauma if a
continuous physical life is to be maintained. This aversion to trauma
risk to the brain would naturally result in significant behavioral
changes that would render physical immortality undesirable for some
people.
Environmental change
Organisms otherwise unaffected by these causes of death would still
face the problem of obtaining sustenance (whether from currently
available agricultural processes or from hypothetical future
technological processes) in the face of changing availability of
suitable resources as environmental conditions change. After avoiding
aging, disease, and trauma, death through resource limitation is still
possible, such as hypoxia or starvation.
If there is no limitation on the degree of gradual mitigation of risk then it is possible that the cumulative probability of death over an infinite horizon is less than certainty, even when the risk of fatal trauma in any finite period is greater than zero. Mathematically, this is an aspect of achieving 'actuarial escape velocity'.
Biological immortality
Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white)
Biological immortality is an absence of aging. Specifically it is the absence of a sustained increase in rate of mortality
as a function of chronological age. A cell or organism that does not
experience aging, or ceases to age at some point, is biologically
immortal.
Biologists have chosen the word "immortal" to designate cells that are not limited by the Hayflick limit, where cells no longer divide because of DNA damage or shortened telomeres. The first and still most widely used immortal cell line is HeLa, developed from cells taken from the malignant cervical tumor of Henrietta Lacks without her consent in 1951. Prior to the 1961 work of Leonard Hayflick, there was the erroneous belief fostered by Alexis Carrel that all normal somatic
cells are immortal. By preventing cells from reaching senescence one
can achieve biological immortality; telomeres, a "cap" at the end of
DNA, are thought to be the cause of cell aging. Every time a cell
divides the telomere becomes a bit shorter; when it is finally worn
down, the cell is unable to split and dies. Telomerase
is an enzyme which rebuilds the telomeres in stem cells and cancer
cells, allowing them to replicate an infinite number of times.
No definitive work has yet demonstrated that telomerase can be used in
human somatic cells to prevent healthy tissues from aging. On the other
hand, scientists hope to be able to grow organs with the help of stem
cells, allowing organ transplants without the risk of rejection, another
step in extending human life expectancy. These technologies are the
subject of ongoing research, and are not yet realized.
Life defined as biologically immortal is still susceptible to causes
of death besides aging, including disease and trauma, as defined above.
Notable immortal species include:
Bacteria – Bacteria reproduce through binary fission.
A parent bacterium splits itself into two identical daughter cells
which eventually then split themselves in half. This process repeats,
thus making the bacterium essentially immortal. A 2005 PLoS Biology paper
suggests that after each division the daughter cells can be identified
as the older and the younger, and the older is slightly smaller, weaker,
and more likely to die than the younger.
Turritopsis dohrnii, a jellyfish (phylum Cnidaria, class Hydrozoa, order Anthoathecata), after becoming a sexually mature adult, can transform itself back into a polyp using the cell conversion process of transdifferentiation. Turritopsis dohrnii repeats this cycle, meaning that it may have an indefinite lifespan. Its immortal adaptation has allowed it to spread from its original habitat in the Caribbean to "all over the world".
As the existence of biologically immortal species demonstrates, there is no thermodynamic necessity for senescence: a defining feature of life is that it takes in free energy from the environment and unloads its entropy
as waste. Living systems can even build themselves up from seed, and
routinely repair themselves. Aging is therefore presumed to be a
byproduct of evolution,
but why mortality should be selected for remains a subject of research
and debate. Programmed cell death and the telomere "end replication
problem" are found even in the earliest and simplest of organisms. This may be a tradeoff between selecting for cancer and selecting for aging.
Modern theories on the evolution of aging include the following:
Mutation accumulation is a theory formulated by Peter Medawar
in 1952 to explain how evolution would select for aging. Essentially,
aging is never selected against, as organisms have offspring before the
mortal mutations surface in an individual.
Antagonistic pleiotropy is a theory proposed as an alternative by George C. Williams,
a critic of Medawar, in 1957. In antagonistic pleiotropy, genes carry
effects that are both beneficial and detrimental. In essence this refers
to genes that offer benefits early in life, but exact a cost later on,
i.e. decline and death.
The disposable soma theory was proposed in 1977 by Thomas Kirkwood,
which states that an individual body must allocate energy for
metabolism, reproduction, and maintenance, and must compromise when
there is food scarcity. Compromise in allocating energy to the repair
function is what causes the body gradually to deteriorate with age,
according to Kirkwood.
Immortality of the germline
Individual
organisms ordinarily age and die, while the germlines which connect
successive generations are potentially immortal. The basis for this
difference is a fundamental problem in biology. The Russian biologist
and historian Zhores A. Medvedev considered that the accuracy of genome replicative and other synthetic systems alone cannot explain the immortality of germlines. Rather Medvedev thought that known features of the biochemistry and genetics of sexual reproduction indicate the presence of unique information maintenance and restoration processes at the different stages of gametogenesis. In particular, Medvedev considered that the most important opportunities for information maintenance of germ cells are created by recombination during meiosis and DNA repair; he saw these as processes within the germ cells that were capable of restoring the integrity of DNA and chromosomes from the types of damage that cause irreversible aging in somatic cells.
Prospects for human biological immortality
Life-extending substances
Some scientists believe that boosting the amount or proportion of telomerase in the body, a naturally forming enzyme that helps maintain the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes,
could prevent cells from dying and so may ultimately lead to extended,
healthier lifespans. A team of researchers at the Spanish National
Cancer Centre (Madrid) tested the hypothesis on mice. It was found that those mice which were "genetically engineered to produce 10 times the normal levels of telomerase lived 50% longer than normal mice".
In normal circumstances, without the presence of telomerase, if a
cell divides repeatedly, at some point all the progeny will reach their
Hayflick limit. With the presence of telomerase, each dividing cell can replace the lost bit of DNA,
and any single cell can then divide unbounded. While this unbounded
growth property has excited many researchers, caution is warranted in
exploiting this property, as exactly this same unbounded growth is a
crucial step in enabling cancerous growth. If an organism can replicate
its body cells faster, then it would theoretically stop aging.
Embryonic stem cells
express telomerase, which allows them to divide repeatedly and form the
individual. In adults, telomerase is highly expressed in cells that
need to divide regularly (e.g., in the immune system), whereas most somatic cells express it only at very low levels in a cell-cycle dependent manner.
Technological immortality, biological machines, and "swallowing the doctor"
Technological immortality is the prospect for much longer life spans
made possible by scientific advances in a variety of fields:
nanotechnology, emergency room procedures, genetics, biological engineering, regenerative medicine, microbiology,
and others. Contemporary life spans in the advanced industrial
societies are already markedly longer than those of the past because of
better nutrition, availability of health care, standard of living and
bio-medical scientific advances.
Technological immortality predicts further progress for the same
reasons over the near term. An important aspect of current scientific
thinking about immortality is that some combination of human cloning, cryonics or nanotechnology will play an essential role in extreme life extension. Robert Freitas, a nanorobotics theorist, suggests tiny medical nanorobots could be created to go through human bloodstreams, find dangerous things like cancer cells and bacteria, and destroy them.
Freitas anticipates that gene-therapies and nanotechnology will
eventually make the human body effectively self-sustainable and capable
of living indefinitely in empty space, short of severe brain trauma.
This supports the theory that we will be able to continually create
biological or synthetic replacement parts to replace damaged or dying
ones. Future advances in nanomedicine could give rise to life extension through the repair of many processes thought to be responsible for aging. K. Eric Drexler, one of the founders of nanotechnology, postulated cell repair devices, including ones operating within cells and using as yet hypothetical biological machines, in his 1986 book Engines of Creation. Raymond Kurzweil, a futurist and transhumanist, stated in his book The Singularity Is Near that he believes that advanced medical nanorobotics could completely remedy the effects of aging by 2030. According to Richard Feynman, it was his former graduate student and collaborator Albert Hibbs who originally suggested to him (circa 1959) the idea of a medical use for Feynman's theoretical micromachines (see biological machine).
Hibbs suggested that certain repair machines might one day be reduced
in size to the point that it would, in theory, be possible to (as
Feynman put it) "swallow the doctor". The idea was incorporated into
Feynman's 1959 essay There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.
Cryonics,
the practice of preserving organisms (either intact specimens or only
their brains) for possible future revival by storing them at cryogenic
temperatures where metabolism and decay are almost completely stopped,
can be used to 'pause' for those who believe that life extension
technologies will not develop sufficiently within their lifetime.
Ideally, cryonics would allow clinically dead people to be brought back
in the future after cures to the patients' diseases have been discovered
and aging is reversible. Modern cryonics procedures use a process called vitrification which creates a glass-like state rather than freezing
as the body is brought to low temperatures. This process reduces the
risk of ice crystals damaging the cell-structure, which would be
especially detrimental to cell structures in the brain, as their minute
adjustment evokes the individual's mind.
This could be accomplished via advanced cybernetics, where
computer hardware would initially be installed in the brain to help sort
memory or accelerate thought processes. Components would be added
gradually until the person's entire brain functions were handled by
artificial devices, avoiding sharp transitions that would lead to issues
of identity,
thus running the risk of the person to be declared dead and thus not be
a legitimate owner of his or her property. After this point, the human
body could be treated as an optional accessory and the program
implementing the person could be transferred to any sufficiently
powerful computer.
Another possible mechanism for mind upload is to perform a
detailed scan of an individual's original, organic brain and simulate
the entire structure in a computer. What level of detail such scans and
simulations would need to achieve to emulate awareness, and whether the
scanning process would destroy the brain, is still to be determined.
It is suggested that achieving immortality through this mechanism
would require specific consideration to be given to the role of consciousness in the functions of the mind.
An uploaded mind would only be a copy of the original mind, and not the
conscious mind of the living entity associated in such a transfer.
Without a simultaneous upload of consciousness, the original living
entity remains mortal, thus not achieving true immortality.
Research on neural correlates of consciousness
is yet inconclusive on this issue. Whatever the route to mind upload,
persons in this state could then be considered essentially immortal,
short of loss or traumatic destruction of the machines that maintained
them.
Transforming a human into a cyborg can include brain implants or extracting a human processing unit and placing it in a robotic life-support system.
Even replacing biological organs with robotic ones could increase life
span (e.g. pace makers) and depending on the definition, many
technological upgrades to the body, like genetic modifications or the
addition of nanobots would qualify an individual as a cyborg. Some
people believe that such modifications would make one impervious to
aging and disease and theoretically immortal unless killed or destroyed.
As late as 1952, the editorial staff of the Syntopicon found in their compilation of the Great Books of the Western World,
that "The philosophical issue concerning immortality cannot be
separated from issues concerning the existence and nature of man's
soul." Thus, the vast majority of speculation on immortality before the 21st century was regarding the nature of the afterlife.
Christian theology holds that Adam and Eve lost physical immortality for themselves and all their descendants through the Fall, although this initial "imperishability of the bodily frame of man" was "a preternatural condition".
Christians who profess the Nicene Creed believe that every dead person (whether they believed in Christ or not) will be resurrected from the dead at the Second Coming; this belief is known as universal resurrection. Paul the Apostle, in following his past life as a Pharisee (a Jewish social movement that held to a future physical resurrection),
proclaims an amalgamated view of resurrected believers where both the
physical and the spiritual are rebuilt in the likeness of
post-resurrection Christ, who "will transform our lowly body to be like
his glorious body" (ESV).
This thought mirrors Paul's depiction of believers having been "buried
therefore with him [that is, Christ] by baptism into death" (ESV).
N.T. Wright, a theologian and former Bishop of Durham, has said many people forget the physical aspect of what Jesus promised. He told Time: "Jesus' resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will 'awake', be embodied and participate in the renewal. Wright says John Polkinghorne,
a physicist and a priest, has put it this way: 'God will download our
software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to
run the software again for ourselves.' That gets to two things nicely:
that the period after death (the Intermediate state)
is a period when we are in God's presence but not active in our own
bodies, and also that the more important transformation will be when we
are again embodied and administering Christ's kingdom." This kingdom will consist of Heaven and Earth "joined together in a new creation", he said.
Christian apocrypha include immortal human figures such as Cartaphilus who were cursed with physical immortality for various transgressions against Christ during the Passion. The medieval Waldensians believed in the immortality of the soul. Leaders of sects such as John Asgill and John Wroe taught followers that physical immortality was possible.
Many Patristic writers have connected the immortal rational soul
to the image of God found in Genesis 1:26. Among them is Athanasius of
Alexandria and Clement of Alexandria, who say that the immortal rational
soul itself is the image of God.
Even Early Christian Liturgies exhibit this connection between the
immortal rational soul and the creation of humanity in the image of God.
Islam
Islamic
dogma bears the concept of spiritual immortality within it; following
the death of a certain individual, it will be arbitrated consistent with
its beliefs as well as actions and will embark on the ever-lasting
place where they will abate.
The Muslim who holds the five pillars of Islam will make an entrance into the Jannah, where they will inhabit indefinitely.
Al-Baqarah
(2:25):
"But give glad tidings to those who believe and work righteousness, that
their portion is gardens, beneath which rivers flow. Every time they
are fed with fruits therefrom, they say, 'Why, this is what we were fed
with before,' for they are given things in similitude; and they have
therein companions pure (and holy); and they abide therein forever."
In contrast, the kafir hold the contradictory notion that they abide in Jahannam perpetually.
Angels in Islam
are reckoned as immortals from the perspective of Islam but most people
believe is that the angels will die and that the Angel of Death will
die, but there is no clear text concerning this. Rather there are texts
which may indicate this, and there is the well known hadeeth (narration)
about the "trumpet", which is a munkar hadeeth (rejected report). alternatively, Jinn have a long lifespan between 1000 and 1500. In some Muslim Sufi mystics, Khidr
is given a long life but not immortality or there is more than a little
argument stated about the demise of khidr; however, it is the matter of
debate, and there is a fabrication point that goes around the Khidr drank from the fountain of Life, which is thoroughly invalid. Jesus in Islam was summoned to the sky by Allah's sanction to preserve him from the cross and endow him with long life until the advent of the Dajjal.
Dijjal is, additionally, given a long life. Jesus Christ dispatches the
Dajjal as he stays after 40 days, one like a year, one like a month,
one like a week, and the rest of his days like normal days. The Qur'an repudiates rejuvenation and physical immortality, stating it is inconceivable for humans to attain genuine elixir of life.
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ
Every soul will taste death
— Quran 3:185
Duration: 16 seconds.0:16It
symbolize the transient nature of life and challenge the concept of
immortality in the physical world. This phrase reflects the impermanence
of all things.
Judaism
The traditional concept of an immaterial and immortal soul distinct from the body was not found in Judaism before the Babylonian exile, but developed as a result of interaction with Persian and Hellenistic philosophies. Accordingly, the Hebrew word nephesh, although translated as "soul" in some older English-language Bibles, actually has a meaning closer to "living being". Nephesh was rendered in the Septuagint as ψυχή (psūchê), the Greek word for 'soul'.
The only Hebrew word traditionally translated "soul" (nephesh) in English language Bibles refers to a living, breathing conscious body, rather than to an immortal soul.
In the New Testament, the Greek word traditionally translated "soul" (ψυχή) has substantially the same meaning as the Hebrew, without reference to an immortal soul.
"Soul" may refer either to the whole person, the self, as in "three thousand souls" were converted in Acts 2:41 (see Acts 3:23).
The Hebrew Bible speaks about Sheol (שאול), originally a synonym of the grave – the repository of the dead or the cessation of existence, until the resurrection of the dead. This doctrine of resurrection is mentioned explicitly only in Daniel 12:1–4 although it may be implied in several other texts. New theories arose concerning Sheol during the intertestamental period.
The views about immortality in Judaism is perhaps best exemplified by the various references to this in Second Temple period. The concept of resurrection of the physical body is found in 2 Maccabees, according to which it will happen through recreation of the flesh. Resurrection of the dead is specified in detail in the extra-canonical books of Enoch, and in Apocalypse of Baruch. According to the British scholar in ancient Judaism P.R. Davies, there is "little or no clear reference ... either to immortality or to resurrection from the dead" in the Dead Sea scrolls texts.
Both Josephus and the New Testament record that the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife,
but the sources vary on the beliefs of the Pharisees.
The New Testament claims that the Pharisees believed in the
resurrection, but does not specify whether this included the flesh or
not. According to Josephus, who himself was a Pharisee, the Pharisees held that only the soul was immortal and the souls of good people will be reincarnated and "pass into other bodies", while "the souls of the wicked will suffer eternal punishment."
The Book of Jubilees seems to refer to the resurrection of the soul only, or to a more general idea of an immortal soul.
Rabbinic Judaism claims that the righteous dead will be resurrected in the Messianic Age, with the coming of the messiah.
They will then be granted immortality in a perfect world. The wicked
dead, on the other hand, will not be resurrected at all. This is not the
only Jewish belief about the afterlife. The Tanakh is not specific about the afterlife, so there are wide differences in views and explanations among believers.
Representation of a soul undergoing punarjanma. Illustration from Hinduism Today, 2004
Hindus believe in an immortal soul which is reincarnated after death. According to Hinduism, people repeat a process of life, death, and rebirth in a cycle called samsara. If they live their life well, their karma
improves and their station in the next life will be higher, and
conversely lower if they live their life poorly. After many life times
of perfecting its karma, the soul is freed from the cycle and lives in
perpetual bliss. There is no place of eternal torment in Hinduism,
although if a soul consistently lives very evil lives, it could work its
way down to the very bottom of the cycle.
There are explicit renderings in the Upanishads
alluding to a physically immortal state brought about by purification,
and sublimation of the 5 elements that make up the body. For example, in
the Shvetashvatara Upanishad
(Chapter 2, Verse 12), it is stated "When earth, water, fire, air and
sky arise, that is to say, when the five attributes of the elements,
mentioned in the books on yoga, become manifest then the yogi's body
becomes purified by the fire of yoga and he is free from illness, old
age and death."
Another view of immortality is traced to the Vedic tradition by the interpretation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
That man indeed whom these (contacts) do not disturb, who is even-minded in pleasure and pain, steadfast, he is fit for immortality, O best of men.
To Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the verse means, "Once a man has become
established in the understanding of the permanent reality of life, his
mind rises above the influence of pleasure and pain. Such an unshakable
man passes beyond the influence of death and in the permanent phase of
life: he attains eternal life ... A man established in the understanding
of the unlimited abundance of absolute existence is naturally free from
existence of the relative order. This is what gives him the status of
immortal life."
An Indian Tamil saint known as Vallalar claimed to have achieved immortality before disappearing forever from a locked room in 1874.
Buddhism
One of the three marks of existence in Buddhism is anattā, "non-self". This teaching states that the body does not have an eternal soul but is composed of five skandhas or aggregates. Additionally, another mark of existence is impermanence, also called anicca, which runs directly counter to concepts of immortality or permanence. According to one Tibetan Buddhist teaching, Dzogchen, individuals can transform the physical body into an immortal body of light called the rainbow body.
Ancient religions
Within
the intricate tapestry of ancient religious ideologies, delve into a
profound contemplation of the concept of immortality. Simultaneously,
broaden the expanse of this intellectual exploration, allowing for a
more comprehensive examination of the subject matter.
Ancient Greek religion
Immortality in ancient Greek religion originally always included an eternal union of body and soul as can be seen in Homer, Hesiod,
and various other ancient texts. The soul was considered to have an
eternal existence in Hades, but without the body the soul was considered
dead. Although almost everybody had nothing to look forward to but an
eternal existence as a disembodied dead soul, a number of men and women
were considered to have gained physical immortality and been brought to
live forever in either Elysium, the Islands of the Blessed, heaven, the ocean or literally right under the ground.
Among those humans made immortal were Amphiaraus, Ganymede, Ino, Iphigenia, Menelaus, Peleus, and a great number of those who fought in the Trojan and Theban wars. Asclepius was killed by Zeus, and by Apollo's request, was subsequently immortalized as a star.
In ancient Greek religion a number of men and women have been interpreted as being resurrected and made immortal. Achilles, after being killed, was snatched from his funeral pyre by his divine mother Thetis and brought to an immortal existence in either Leuce, the Elysian plains or the Islands of the Blessed. Memnon, who was killed by Achilles, seems to have received a similar fate. Alcmene, Castor, Heracles, and Melicertes, are also among the figures interpreted to have been resurrected to physical immortality. According to Herodotus's Histories, the seventh century BC sage Aristeas of Proconnesus was first found dead, after which his body disappeared from a locked room. He would reappear alive years later.
However, Greek attitudes towards resurrection were generally negative,
and the idea of resurrection was considered neither desirable nor
possible. For example, Asclepius was killed by Zeus for using herbs to resurrect the dead, but by his father Apollo's request, was subsequently immortalized as a star.
Writing his Lives of Illustrious Men (Parallel Lives) in the first century, the Middle Platonic philosopher Plutarch in his chapter on Romulus
gave an account of the king's mysterious disappearance and subsequent
deification, comparing it to Greek tales such as the physical
immortalization of Alcmene and Aristeas the Proconnesian,
"for they say Aristeas died in a fuller's work-shop, and his friends
coming to look for him, found his body vanished; and that some presently
after, coming from abroad, said they met him traveling towards Croton".
Plutarch openly scorned such beliefs held in ancient Greek religion,
writing, "many such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate,
deifying creatures naturally mortal."
Likewise, he writes that while something within humans comes from the
gods and returns to them after death, this happens "only when it is most
completely separated and set free from the body, and becomes altogether
pure, fleshless, and undefiled."
The parallel between these traditional beliefs and the later resurrection of Jesus was not lost on early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued:
"when we say ... Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and
died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propose nothing
different from what you believe regarding those whom you consider sons
of Zeus."
The philosophical idea of an immortal soul was a belief first appearing with either Pherecydes or the Orphics, and most importantly advocated by Plato
and his followers. This, however, never became the general norm in
Hellenistic thought. As may be witnessed even into the Christian era,
not least by the complaints of various philosophers over popular
beliefs, many or perhaps most traditional Greeks maintained the
conviction that certain individuals were resurrected from the dead and
made physically immortal and that others could only look forward to an
existence as disembodied and dead, though everlasting, souls.
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrians
believe that on the fourth day after death, the human soul leaves the
body and the body remains as an empty shell. Souls would go to either
heaven or hell; these concepts of the afterlife in Zoroastrianism may
have influenced Abrahamic religions. The Persian word for "immortal" is
associated with the month "Amurdad", meaning "deathless" in Persian, in
the Iranian calendar (near the end of July). The month of Amurdad or Ameretat
is celebrated in Persian culture as ancient Persians believed the
"Angel of Immortality" won over the "Angel of Death" in this month.
Philosophical religions
Within
the realm of philosophical religious paradigms, engage in a profound
exploration of the concept of immortality. Simultaneously, expand the
breadth and depth of this intellectual inquiry to afford a more
intricate examination of the subject matter.
It is repeatedly stated in the Lüshi Chunqiu that death is unavoidable. Henri Maspero noted that many scholarly works frame Taoism as a school of thought focused on the quest for immortality. Isabelle Robinet asserts that Taoism is better understood as a way of life than as a religion, and that its adherents do not approach or view Taoism the way non-Taoist historians have done.
In the Tractate of Actions and their Retributions, a traditional
teaching, spiritual immortality can be rewarded to people who do a
certain amount of good deeds and live a simple, pure life. A list of
good deeds and sins are tallied to determine whether or not a mortal is
worthy. Spiritual immortality in this definition allows the soul to
leave the earthly realms of afterlife and go to pure realms in the
Taoist cosmology.
Philosophical arguments for the immortality of the soul
Alcmaeon of Croton
Alcmaeon of Croton
argued that the soul is continuously and ceaselessly in motion. The
exact form of his argument is unclear, but it appears to have influenced
Plato, Aristotle, and other later writers.
Plato
Plato's Phaedo advances four arguments for the soul's immortality:
The Cyclical Argument, or Opposites Argument explains that Forms
are eternal and unchanging, and as the soul always brings life, then it
must not die, and is necessarily "imperishable". As the body is mortal
and is subject to physical death, the soul must be its indestructible
opposite. Plato then suggests the analogy of fire and cold. If the form
of cold is imperishable, and fire, its opposite, was within close
proximity, it would have to withdraw intact as does the soul during
death. This could be likened to the idea of the opposite charges of
magnets.
The Theory of Recollection
explains that we possess some non-empirical knowledge (e.g. The Form of
Equality) at birth, implying the soul existed before birth to carry
that knowledge. Another account of the theory is found in Plato's Meno, although in that case Socrates implies anamnesis (previous knowledge of everything) whereas he is not so bold in Phaedo.
The Affinity Argument,
explains that invisible, immortal, and incorporeal things are different
from visible, mortal, and corporeal things. Our soul is of the former,
while our body is of the latter, so when our bodies die and decay, our
soul will continue to live.
The Argument from Form of Life
or The Final Argument explains that the Forms, incorporeal and static
entities, are the cause of all things in the world, and all things
participate in Forms. For example, beautiful things participate in the
Form of Beauty; the number four participates in the Form of the Even,
etc. The soul, by its very nature, participates in the Form of Life,
which means the soul can never die.
Plotinus
Plotinus
offers a version of the argument that Kant calls "The Achilles of
Rationalist Psychology". Plotinus first argues that the soul is simple,
then notes that a simple being cannot decompose. Many subsequent
philosophers have argued both that the soul is simple and that it must
be immortal. The tradition arguably culminates with Moses Mendelssohn's Phaedon.
Metochites
Theodore Metochites
argues that part of the soul's nature is to move itself, but that a
given movement will cease only if what causes the movement is separated
from the thing moved – an impossibility if they are one and the same.
Avicenna
Avicenna argued for the distinctness of the soul and the body, and the incorruptibility of the former.
Aquinas
The full argument for the immortality of the soul and Thomas Aquinas' elaboration of Aristotelian theory is found in Question 75 of the First Part of the Summa Theologica.
Descartes
René Descartes
endorses the claim that the soul is simple, and also that this entails
that it cannot decompose. Descartes does not address the possibility
that the soul might suddenly disappear.
Leibniz
In early work, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
endorses a version of the argument from the simplicity of the soul to
its immortality, but like his predecessors, he does not address the
possibility that the soul might suddenly disappear. In his monadology he advances a sophisticated novel argument for the immortality of monads.
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn's Phaedon
is a defense of the simplicity and immortality of the soul. It is a
series of three dialogues, revisiting the Platonic dialogue Phaedo, in which Socrates
argues for the immortality of the soul, in preparation for his own
death. Many philosophers, including Plotinus, Descartes, and Leibniz,
argue that the soul is simple, and that because simples cannot decompose
they must be immortal. In the Phaedon, Mendelssohn addresses gaps in
earlier versions of this argument (an argument that Kant calls the
Achilles of Rationalist Psychology). The Phaedon contains an original
argument for the simplicity of the soul, and also an original argument
that simples cannot suddenly disappear. It contains further original
arguments that the soul must retain its rational capacities as long as
it exists.
The possibility of clinical immortality raises a host of medical,
philosophical, and religious issues and ethical questions. These include
persistent vegetative states, the nature of personality over time, technology to mimic or copy the mind or its processes, social and economic disparities created by longevity, and survival of the heat death of the universe.
Undesirability
Physical immortality has also been imagined as a form of eternal torment, as in the myth of Tithonus, or in Mary Shelley's short story The Mortal Immortal, where the protagonist lives to witness everyone he cares about die around him. For additional examples in fiction, see Immortality in fiction.
Kagan (2012)
argues that any form of human immortality would be undesirable. Kagan's
argument takes the form of a dilemma. Either our characters remain
essentially the same in an immortal afterlife, or they do not:
If our characters remain basically the same – that is, if we
retain more or less the desires, interests, and goals that we have now –
then eventually, over an infinite stretch of time, we will get bored
and find eternal life unbearably tedious.
If, on the other hand, our characters are radically changed – e.g.,
by God periodically erasing our memories or giving us rat-like brains
that never tire of certain simple pleasures – then such a person would
be too different from our current self for us to care much what happens
to them.
Either way, Kagan argues, immortality is unattractive. The best
outcome, Kagan argues, would be for humans to live as long as they
desired and then to accept death gratefully as rescuing us from the
unbearable tedium of immortality.
Sociology
If human beings were to achieve immortality, there would most likely be a change in the world's social structures. Sociologists argue that human beings' awareness of their own mortality shapes their behavior.
With the advancements in medical technology in extending human life,
there may need to be serious considerations made about future social
structures. The world is already experiencing a global demographic shift of increasingly ageing populations with lower replacement rates.
The social changes that are made to accommodate this new population
shift may be able to offer insight on the possibility of an immortal
society.
Sociology has a growing body of literature on the sociology of
immortality, which details the different attempts at reaching
immortality (whether actual or symbolic) and their prominence in the
21st century. These attempts include renewed attention to the dead in
the West, practices of online memorialization, and biomedical attempts to increase longevity.
These attempts at reaching immortality and their effects in societal
structures have led some to argue that we are becoming a "Postmortal
Society".Foreseen changes to societies derived from the pursuit of immortality
would encompass societal paradigms and worldviews, as well as the
institutional landscape. Similarly, different forms of reaching
immortality might entail a significant reconfiguration of societies,
from becoming more technologically oriented to becoming more aligned
with nature.
Immortality would increase population growth, bringing with it many consequences as for example the impact of population growth on the environment and planetary boundaries.
Politics
Although some scientists state that radical life extension, delaying and stopping aging are achievable,
there are no international or national programs focused on stopping
aging or on radical life extension. In 2012 in Russia, and then in the
United States, Israel and the Netherlands, pro-immortality political
parties were launched. They aimed to provide political support to
anti-aging and radical life extension research and technologies and at
the same time transition to the next step, radical life extension, life
without aging, and finally, immortality and aim to make possible access
to such technologies to most currently living people.
Some scholars critique the increasing support for immortality
projects. Panagiotis Pentaris speculates that defeating ageing as the
cause of death comes with a cost: "heightened stratification of humans
in society and a wider gap between social classes".
Others suggest that other immortality projects like transhumanist
digital immortality, radical life extension and cryonics are part of the
capitalist fabric of exploitation and control, which aims to extend privileged lives of the economic elite.
In this sense, immortality could become a political-economic
battleground for the twenty-first century between the haves and
have-nots.
Symbols
The ankh
There are numerous symbols representing immortality. The ankh is an Egyptian symbol of life that holds connotations of immortality when depicted in the hands of the gods and pharaohs, who were seen as having control over the journey of life. The Möbius strip in the shape of a trefoil knot
is another symbol of immortality. Most symbolic representations of
infinity or the life cycle are often used to represent immortality
depending on the context they are placed in. Other examples include the Ouroboros, the Chinese fungus of longevity, the tenkanji, the phoenix, the peacock in Christianity, and the colors amaranth (in Western culture) and peach (in Chinese culture).
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