Personal Identity And Immortality Analysis

If we cease to exist at physical death, then it would be the same as to never existing in the first place. It is therefore likely that survival is possible after death based on religious beliefs and through the development of science and medical methods. According to the whole-brain standard, a human death refers to the irreversible cessation of functioning of the entire brain, including the brainstem. Survival, on the other hand, can be defined as to continue to exist when ending looked certain. Survival of Julia in Julia/Mary case shows that survival is possible after death.
In A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Julia’s brain was inserted into Mary Beaudine’s body after she had an accident that struck her body and disabled it …show more content…
Memory alone is enough for own identity. The identity of the body is not really for personal identity. Dave Cohen explains this by saying that the memory view has some anticipatory sense and it gives an explanation on the significance on personal identity. According to Dave, it clarifies as to why we have a special concern for the future person whom we accept to be our self in opposition to the way we think about others. We can then argue that the death of the body does not mean that the person’s death is irreversible. As memories are saved in the brain, if that particular brain was to be transferred in a new body, the same person would still exist but in a different body. At last, we would also agree that the brain carries on the soul and that the soul is built from memories as in the Marie/Julia …show more content…
This alone shows that the brain is the shell and storage of the soul. We can transplant the kidney or the heart of an individual into a different one. We can transplant arms, legs but the soul will never transfer because only the brain has that prowess. Therefore, the death of the body does not represent irreversible death. The body is just a messenger of the brain and it is directed by it only. Then, even if the body is dead, a person can still survive. In a scenario involving brain rejuvenation, if a new brain is built that is identical to the original brain, we cannot say that the new person possessing the copy of the brain is the same as the original person. It is whoever has the original brain that is the real person even though the two brains may have similar psychological characteristics.
In conclusion, we can prove that there’s a possibility of life after death and one of them was proven in the Marie/Julia’s case. Based on arguments, we can be certain that there is survival after death because if this were untrue, then existence would lack its meaning. Julia was dead in the first place after being crashed by the trolley, but because the brain that bared her mind and soul was undamaged, she survived showing that a person is not entirely dead when it seems like it. The soul can be saved if the