PHI2010 Weeks 11 12 and 13 Notes Scheffler s The Afterlife Samuel Scheffleer Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU Student of Thomas Nagel What is the afterlife Thought experiment B y the afterlife we mean the continuation of human life on earth after our own life You will live a normal life span Female 81 and Male 76 Earth will be destroyed 30 days after you die How would this knowledge affect your attitudes during the remainder of your life Scheffler page 748 Potential consequences of doomsday Obvious grief sadness distress etc Many projects and activities would become less important 1 Our reasons to engage in them are not as strong 2 Emotional investment might weaken e g not excited about doing said activity 3 Belief that they were worthwhile activities might weaken or disappear altogether E g Cancer research o Project with success long way off o Primary value is goal to save people What kinds of projects are vulnerable Scheffler page 749 Their ultimate success is something that may not be achieved until the future Value of project derives from benefits to a large number of people over a long period of time Examples of vulnerable projects Science technology and medicine Social and political activism What kinds of projects might not be vulnerable Scheffler page 749 Creative and scholarly projects with no practical aim E g art and music and writing Scheffler s Main Points The upset is that many types of projects and activities would no longer seem worth pursuing if we were confronted with the doomsday scenario Scheffler page 750 T he survival of people after our deaths matters greatly to us both in its own right and because to an extent that we rarely acknowledge our conviction that things matter is sustained by our confidence that life will go on after we ourselves are gone Scheffler page 751 T he survival of humanity matters more to each of us than we usually realize indeed it matters more to us even than our own survival Scheffler page 751 Read How the Afterlife Matters by Frankfurt and The Significance of Doomsday by Wolf Frankfurt Scheffler is wrong an afterlife in Scheffler s sense Examples Much of what really matters to us is independent of our attitude towards the existence of Cancer researcher might continue working even in the doomsday scenario People try to solve chess problems even if they benefit nobody Curing diseases could be like solving a puzzle for some cancer researchers And that is what gives it value for them Artist might still create for their own satisfaction and or for the enjoyment of audience that exists now Their art existing past their death is not amotivation Intrinsic Value Many things are important for their own sake E g music friendship We may value somethings differently in a doomsday scenario but we would still have the part of their value that depends on their intrinsic characteristics http plato stanford edu entries value intrinsic extrinsic Frankfurt s Main Point Not all people would respond to the doomsday scenario in the same way Just as people respond differently to learning they themselves only have a short time to live Wolf Alvy Example Alvy s mother takes him to the doctor because he refuses to do his homework on the grounds that the universe will end someday Scheffler thinks this shows that we are not psychologically motivated by such distinct facts but Alvy might have a point Wolf s Response to Scheffler on the Alvy Scenario Our world will be destroyed someday Does that make our activities and projects If the end of humanity makes our lives meaningless why should it matter whether it meaningless comes soon or in billions of years Wolf s Main Points What about the reverse If the fact that humans will eventually go extinct does not make our activities meaningless then why should the fact that we will die out in thirty days or a hundred years make them meaningless either Learning about our imminent extinction might be a shock but we would then snap out of it and get back to our lives NO CLASSES NEXT WEEK Watch Children of Men and answer questions Read The Meaning of Life by Taylor The Meaning of Life What is the definition of meaning The thing one intends to convey especially by language Significant quality What is significant Quality of being important Quality of having notable worth or influence Does life have any meaning is a difficult question Perhaps it is easier to answer the question What is a meaningless life Meaningless Existence The Myth of Sisyphus Greek Mythology Sisyphus betrayed divine secrets to mortals For this he was condemned by the gods to roll a stone to the top of a hill The stone will immediately roll back down and Sisyphus would have to push it back to the top This cycles is repeated forever What makes Sisyphus s life meaningless His life is a repetitive cyclical activity that comes to nothing Not meaningless because life of great pain or labor or that is last forever It is deprived of meaning because it comes to nothing What if the rock he pushes assembled into a temple Then his life would have some meaning even if it were not altogether worth it What if the gods implanted in Sisyphus an impulsive desire to roll stones This would be merciful because he would be doing what he wants to do forever However from an objective point of view his life will still be meaningless Sisyphus would only have meaning from a subjective view Meaningful Existence From the Myth of Sisyphus we learn that a meaningless life is endless and pointless Meaningful life is opposite to Sisyphus s life How do humans cope with the possibility of a meaningless life We invent ways of denying that our lives are meaningless e g religion philosophy etc These inventions do not change the facts of existence We need something more Accomplishments are NOT enough We need something more than accomplishments E g Sisyphus work resulting in a temple What then What is the better alternative Life gains subjective meaning from the state of mind of the one living it This introduces our wills into the issue of meaningfulness The activity of living does not result in one s life having meaning Life must be considered from the point of view of the will engaged in activities What is a meaningful life The point of a meaningful life is to live in the manner most natural to one The meaning of life is from within us it is not bestowed from without Taylor page Read Meaning in Life by Wolf and Meaningful Lives by Vitrano Not necessarily painful laborious repetitive or