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In today’s geeky web video, Professor Shelly Kagan of Yale asks some huge questions: is there life after death? Well…to answer this, Kagan backs up and asks: what is a person? What is a person made of, and thus what part of that person would have to survive the death event? From there, Kagan dives into a fascinating discussion of issues of identity, what is means to be a person, what within us might survive after death, and so on. It’s provocative, and he’s a hell of a speaker.
The lecture is only the second in a twenty-six lecture series in Kagan’s course Death, all of which are available online via Academic Earth, a resource hosting tons of college lectures online…all for free. Check it out.
The lecture’s official description:
Professor Kagan discusses the two main positions with regard to the question, “What is a person?” On the one hand, there is the dualist view, according to which a person is a body and a soul. On the other hand, the physicalist view argues that a person is just a body. The body, however, has a certain set of abilities and is capable of a large range of activities.
If you can’t see the video player, visit the lecture page.
Comments (5)
Comment
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Took over 36 minutes before I heard in his lecture what I had suspected all along. The fact that early on he equates the mind with the soul gave me a clue. The problem with this stance is that he is giving a lecture about a philosophy or belief that he knows little about. Philosophize all he wants, one person can never give a equally balanced argument for both sides. His belief will outweigh the other in the end.
Let’s not take this into the argument of whether or not one believes in a soul. That’s up to one’s own belief but for those who do, dualist doesn’t fit the description of a believer. Tri-ist might be a better characterization – the belief of a body, mind and soul. Some may call it a conscious.
posted by Steve S on 3-12-2009 at 3:24 pm
I was thinking similarly to Steve S on this one. It made me think back to my favorite college philosophy/theology/literature course.
The best thing about that class (besides the awesome reading material) was that our prof never once gave us his own opinion on the subject we were studying. Yes, I’m sure it came through in his teaching (you can never objectively teach this subject matter), but still he never told us what to believe, or even what he believed. He asked a question at the beginning of the semester, let us ruminate on it during all of our readings and discussions, then had us write a final paper discussing our findings. He asked us to answer the question based on what we read and believed. To me, that’s the best way to handle philosophy.
posted by nutmeag on 3-12-2009 at 4:32 pm
Just noticed that my last word should have been “conscience”.
posted by Steve S on 3-12-2009 at 7:29 pm
Hah, that’s a coincidence, I just finished listening to his lectures a few days ago.
posted by Corinne on 3-13-2009 at 12:44 am
Wow, thanks for introducing me to Academic Earth. It’s still small, but it looks like a great site.
posted by Southern Buddhist on 3-13-2009 at 2:03 am