Surviving Death

by Mark Johnston

Why supernatural beliefs are at odds with a true understanding of the afterlife

In this extraordinary book, Mark Johnston sets out a new understanding of personal identity and the self, thereby providing a purely naturalistic account of surviving death.

Death threatens our sense of the importance of goodness. The threat can be met if there is, as Socrates said, something in death that is better for the good than for the bad. Yet, as Johnston shows, all existing theological conceptions of the afterlife are either incoherent or at odds with the workings of nature. These supernaturalist pictures of the rewards for goodness also obscure a striking consilience between the philosophical study of the self and an account of goodness common to Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism: the good person is one who has undergone a kind of death of the self and who lives a life transformed by entering imaginatively into the lives of others, anticipating their needs and true interests. As a caretaker of humanity who finds his or her own death comparatively unimportant, the good person can see through death.

But this is not all. Johnston's closely argued claims that there is no persisting self and that our identities are in a particular way Protean imply that the good survive death. Given the future-directed concern that defines true goodness, the good quite literally live on in the onward rush of humankind. Every time a baby is born a good person acquires a new face.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion

416 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book! Johnston's ultimate goal is to establish a purely naturalistic salvific doctrine (entirely devoid of supernaturalism) whereby 'goodness' can still be preserved in the face of death. In the first lecture, Johnston explores and ultimately rejects a handful of popular theories of personal resurrection; he then continues, in the proceeding lectures, with a presentation of the Buddhist doctrine of anatta, or not-self, wherein the concept of a persisting, 'superlative self' is shown to be illusory. After one comes to terms with the incoherence of resurrection and the self, Johnston believes there remains only one outlook worth adopting: agape, or radical altruism. Accordingly, the truly good person, seeing through the illusion of self and abandoning all vain hopes of the eternal preservation of their individual personality, will then identify with the flourishing of life itself; herein lies the way to salvation, says Johnston: one will literally live on in the "onward rush of humanity."

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

A long meandering series of lectures containing such a scattered range of subjects that it serves only to be shallow and misleading. Both the driving motivations and final conclusions are unsatisfying and unexceptional. The premises in the book would have been worth sharing had there been a focus on brevity, clarity, and steel-manning the opposition views. I can't personally get past the early 2000s new-athiest style baseless assumptions.

[Sam Schulman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as interesting as the reviews suggested it would be - and the style was irritating to me, as if he were simplifying things for my edification. No news you can use.

[Daniel Toker]

I bought this because it looked interesting, because I found it at an extremely low price in a bookstore in Tel Aviv,and because it was written by a professor at my school. Unfortunately, I stopped reading 60 pages in - not because the book is unentertaining or poorly written. It's just not quite what I thought it would be, and the writing is a litle too technical for what I'm currently looking for. I think I'll crack it open again a few years from now to see if it'll tickle my fancy then.

[laura]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n11/galen-st...

thanks, anthony mohen!