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Single Idea 21797

[filed under theme 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / a. Immortality ]

Full Idea

The immortality of the soul must not be imagined as though it first emerges into actuality at some later time; rather it is a present quality. ...As pure knowing or as thinking, Spirit has the universal for its object - this is eternity.

Gist of Idea

Immortality does not come at a later time, but when pure knowing Spirit fully grasps the universal

Source

Georg W.F.Hegel (Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion [1827], III: 208), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 10 'Death'

Book Ref

Houlgate,Stephen: 'An Introduction to Hegel' [Blackwell 2005], p.265

A Reaction

An unusual view of immortality, which challenges orthodoxy. The idea seems to be that 'pure knowing' is a grasping of the pure reason which embodies nature, which in turn is the nature of God. You enter eternity, rather than reside in it?

The 35 ideas with the same theme [survival of the human soul after death]:

5883 Pherecydes was the first to say that the soul is eternal [Pherecydes, by Cicero]
7469 There is no hereafter in the Book of Job [Anon (Job), by Watson]
7467 The modern idea of an immortal soul was largely created by Pythagoras [Pythagoras, by Watson]
8233 Imagine fire burning up your whole body, but not you [Anon (Cent)]
1513 The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus]
20915 The soul is destroyed with the body [Democritus, by Ps-Plutarch]
363 Whether the soul pre-exists our body depends on whether it contains the ultimate standard of reality [Plato]
146 Soul is always in motion, so it must be self-moving and immortal [Plato]
24037 We all assume immortality is impossible [Aristotle]
20829 Virtuous souls endure till the end, foolish souls for a short time, animal souls not at all [Stoic school, by Eusebius]
6039 Stoics say virtuous souls last till everything ends in fire, but foolish ones fade away [Stoic school, by ]
7482 Resurrection developed in Judaism as a response to martyrdoms, in about 160 BCE [Anon (Dan), by Watson]
5888 Souls are born, since they are sensitive and inherited, so they must perish [Panaetius, by Cicero]
5720 Spirit is mortal [Lucretius]
5722 For a separated spirit to remain sentient it would need sense organs attached to it [Lucretius]
5725 An immortal mind couldn't work harmoniously with a mortal body [Lucretius]
23360 Each of the four elements in you is entirely scattered after death [Epictetus]
5765 The reward of the good is to become gods [Boethius]
1863 If the soul achieves well-being in another life, it doesn't follow that I do [Aquinas]
23306 Humans have a non-physical faculty of reason, so they can be immortal [Aquinas, by Sorabji]
2378 Belief in an afterlife is based on poorly founded gossip [Hobbes]
7831 Spinoza's theory of mind implies that there is no immortality [Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
21876 After death, something eternal remains of the mind [Spinoza]
12912 Immortality without memory is useless [Leibniz]
21296 If all of my perceptions were removed by death, nothing more is needed for total annihilation [Hume]
21797 Immortality does not come at a later time, but when pure knowing Spirit fully grasps the universal [Hegel]
2916 The great lie of immortality destroys rationality and natural instinct [Nietzsche]
23902 I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us [Weil]
7349 Immortality based on judgement of merit was developed by the Egyptians (not the Jews) [Johnson,P]
7354 The main doctrine of the Pharisees was belief in resurrection and the afterlife [Johnson,P]
6709 Western religion saves us from death; Eastern religion saves us from immortality [Graham]
7817 To make an afterlife appealing, this life has to be denigrated [Grayling]
7818 In Greek mythology only heroes can go to heaven [Grayling]
5505 For Aristotle the psyche perishes with the body (except possibly 'nous') [Martin/Barresi]
7468 In ancient Athens the souls of the dead are received by the 'upper air' [Watson]