Single Idea 7831

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

Full Idea

A final (and for his contemporaries, dreadful) consequence of Spinoza's theory of the mind is that there is no personal immortality.

Gist of Idea

Spinoza's theory of mind implies that there is no immortality

Source

report of Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675]) by Matthew Stewart - The Courtier and the Heretic Ch.10

Book Reference

Stewart,Matthew: 'The Courtier and the Heretic' [Yale 2007], p.172


A Reaction

For Spinoza's view of the mind, see Idea 4308. The denial of immortality would also seem to be a consequence of modern emergentist views of the mind, which is espoused by religious people looking for a compromise between dualism and science.

Related Idea

Idea 4308 Mind and body are one thing, seen sometimes as thought and sometimes as extension [Spinoza]