Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:04:51.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Desirability without Desire: Life Extension, Boredom and Spiritual Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2021

Drew Chastain
Drew Chastain*
Affiliation:
Loyola UniversityNew Orleans
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In response to Bernard Williams’ suspicion that we would inevitably become bored with immortal life, John Martin Fischer has argued that we could continue to enjoy repeatable pleasures such as fine wine, beautiful music, and spiritual experiences. In more recent work on near-death experiences, Fischer has also explored the non-religious meaning of spiritual experiences in more depth. I join this deeper exploration of spiritual experience, and I also join Williams’ critics who question his view that character and desire are needed to explain the desirability of life, while providing additional reason for concern that Williams’ way of valuing life may itself actually be a cause of boredom with life. With an eye to spiritual experience, I indicate how we can distance ourselves even further from Williams’ view, and I suggest how the attitude that life is good but death is not bad emerges from spiritual experience, as expressed in numerous religious and secular spiritual traditions. This lends support to the conclusion that radically extended life is desirable even if not actively desired.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 90: Death and Meaning , October 2021 , pp. 167 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, Diogenes, ‘Epilogue: Extended Life, Eternal Life: A Christian Perspective’ in Post, Stephen G. and Binstock, Robert H., Fountain of Youth: Cultural, Scientific, and Ethical Perspectives on a Biomedical Goal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 387–96.Google Scholar
Beglin, David, ‘Should I Choose to Never Die?: Williams, Boredom, and the Significance of Mortality’, Philosophical Studies 174 (2017), 2009–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bortolotti, Lisa and Nagasawa, Yujin, ‘Immortality without Boredom’, Ratio, 22 (2009), pp. 261-77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, Ben and McDaniel, Kris, ‘Death and Desire’, in Taylor, James Stacey (ed.), The Metaphysics and Ethics of Death (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 118–33.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Cheshire, ‘Living with Boredom’ in Calhoun, Doing Valuable Time: The Present, the Future, and Meaningful Living (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 117–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Čapek, Karel, ‘The Makropulos Case’, in Majer, Peter and Porter, Cathy (trans.), Four Plays (London: Metheun World Classics, 1999 [1925]).Google Scholar
Chastain, Drew, ‘Gifts without Givers: Secular Spirituality and Metaphorical Cognition’, Sophia 56 (2017), 631–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chastain, Drew, ‘Can Life Be Meaningful without Free Will?’, Philosophia 47.4 (2019), 1069–1086.Google Scholar
Chastain, Drew, ‘Deep Personal Meaning’, A Subjective Approach to Meaning in Life’, Journal of Philosophy of Life 11 (2021), 1–23.Google Scholar
Chastain, Drew, ‘Faith, Meaning, and Spirituality without Religion’, in Nicholls, Roderick and Salazar, Heather (eds.), Mind Over Matter (Leiden: Brill | Rodopi, forthcoming).Google Scholar
Cholbi, Michael, ‘Immortality and the Exhaustibility of Value’, in Cholbi, (ed.), Immortality and the Philosophy of Death (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), 221–36.Google Scholar
Cottingham, John, ‘Philosophy, Religion, and Spirituality’, in McPherson, David (ed.), Spirituality and the Good Life: Philosophical Approaches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 11–28.Google Scholar
Laozi, Daodejing, trans. by Robert Eno (2010): http://hdl.handle.net/2022/23426 (accessed June 2021).Google Scholar
de Grey, Aubrey, ‘An Engineer's Approach to Developing Real Anti-Aging Medicine’, in Post, Stephen G. and Binstock, Robert H., Fountain of Youth: Cultural, Scientific, and Ethical Perspectives on a Biomedical Goal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 249–68.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald, Religion without God (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Fischer, John Martin, ‘Why Immortality is Not So Bad’, Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 79–92.Google Scholar
Fischer, John Martin, ‘Immortality’, in Bradley, Ben, Feldman, Fred, and Johansson, Jens (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 336–54.Google Scholar
Fischer, John Martin, Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).Google Scholar
Fischer, John Martin and Mitchell-Yellin, Benjamin, Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife (Oxford: Oxford, University Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Gillman, Neil, ‘A Jewish Theology of Death and the Afterlife’ in Post, Stephen G. and Binstock, Robert H., Fountain of Youth: Cultural, Scientific, and Ethical Perspectives on a Biomedical Goal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 94–108.Google Scholar
Godlovitch, Stan, ‘Creativity in Nature’, The Journal of Aesthetic Education 33.3 (1999), 17–26.Google Scholar
Hauskeller, Michael, Better Humans?: Understanding the Enhancement Project (Durham: Acumen Publishing Ltd, 2013).Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, trans. by McNeill, William and Walker, Nicholas, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
Kagan, Shelly, Death (New Haven: Yale University, 2012).Google Scholar
Lacewing, Michael, ‘Can non-theists appropriately feel existential gratitude?’, Religious Studies 52 (2016): 145–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laertius, Diogenes, ‘Epicurus’, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), 528–678.Google Scholar
Millgram, Elijah, ‘On Being Bored Out of Your Mind’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 104 (2004): 163–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murdoch, Iris, The Sovereignty of Good (New York: Schocken Books, 1971).Google Scholar
Olshansky, S. Jay and Carnes, Bruce A., ‘Inconvenient Truths About Human Longevity’, Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences 74.S1 (2019): S7–S12.Google ScholarPubMed
Olson, Stuart Alve, The Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic: The Taoist Guide to Health, Longevity, and Immortality (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2003).Google Scholar
Otto, Rudolf, The Idea of the Holy, trans. by Harvey, John W. (London: Oxford University Press, 1923).Google Scholar
O'Brien, Wendell, ‘Boredom: A History of Western Philosophical Perspectives’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://iep.utm.edu/boredom/ (accessed June 2021).Google Scholar
O'Connor, Brian, Idleness: A Philosophical Essay (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
Pollan, Michael, How to Change Your Mind (New York: Penguin Press, 2018).Google Scholar
Rosati, Connie, ‘The Makropulos Case Revisited: Reflections on Immortality and Agency’, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death, (ed.) Bradley, Ben, Feldman, Fred, and Johansson, Jens, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 355–90.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, Stephen, ‘Epicurus and Annihilation’, The Philosophical Quarterly 39.154 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheffler, Samuel, Death and the Afterlife (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlick, Moritz, ‘On the Meaning of Life’, in Mulder, Henk L. and Van de Velde-Schlick, Barbara F. B. (eds.), Heath, Peter (trans.), Philosophical Papers: Volume II (1925–1936) (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1979), 112–29.Google Scholar
Setiya, Kieran, ‘The Midlife Crisis’, Philosophers’ Imprint 14.31 (2014): 1–18.Google Scholar
Setiya, Kieran, Midlife (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, Robert, Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svendsen, Lars, A Philosophy of Boredom, trans. by Irons, John, (London: Reaktion Books, 2005).Google Scholar
Svendsen, Lars, ‘Boredom and the Meaning of Life’, in Gardiner, Michael E. and Haladyn, Julian Jason (eds.), Boredom Studies Reader: Frameworks and Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2017), 205–215.Google Scholar
Toohey, Peter, Boredom: A Lively History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Treanor, Brian, Melancholic Joy: On Life Worth Living (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velez, Abraham, ‘Buddha’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://iep.utm.edu/buddha/ (accessed June 2021).Google Scholar
Wiggins, David, ‘Truth, Invention, and Meaning in Life’, Proceedings of the British Academy 62 (1976), 331–78.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard, ‘The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality’, in Fischer, John Martin (ed.), The Metaphysics of Death (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), 73–92.Google Scholar
Wolf, Susan, ‘Happiness and Meaning: Two Aspects of the Good Life’, Social Philosophy and Policy 14 (1997) 207–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Susan, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).Google Scholar
Wright, Robert, Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017).Google Scholar
Zhuangzi, , ‘Death and the Dao’ in Robert Eno (trans.), Zhuangzi: The Inner Chapters (2019): http://hdl.handle.net/2022/23427 (accessed June 2021).Google Scholar