Abstract
It seems uncontroversial that you currently exist. If you were to attempt to doubt this then you would in fact prove your own existence, because a doubt requires a doubter to exist, as Descartes famously argued. Things are not so uncontroversial, however, when it comes to the possibility of our non-existence. Is it possible for us to cease to exist? Throughout much of human history, there has been resistance to the idea that we cease to exist. Our tendency to form beliefs about an afterlife is evidence of this.
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Thanks to Natalie Ashton and Yujin Nagasawa for feedback and discussion.
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Matheson, B. (2017). Introduction. In: Nagasawa, Y., Matheson, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48609-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48609-7_1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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