The Search for Immortality

Saturday, December 13, 2014
2:30-4:30 pm

Past Event

In the Phaedo, Plato asserts that the philosophical life is a preparation for death. Human aspiration, expressed in our science and in our spirituality, nevertheless seeks to transcend the philosophical and biological confines of mortality. How do differences in our awareness of mortality, from developmental death anxieties to the philosopher’s embrace, influence the diverse lives we lead? Can scientific advances, by giving us access to enhanced modes of perception and the possibilities of universes beyond our own, offer a way of transcending the death of the self? How have these advances, as well as enhancements in spiritual practice, contributed to ideas about life in the hereafter or in alternative realms?

Participants:

Martin Hägglund

Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities, Yale University

Martin Hägglund is Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities at Yale University. He is the author of three books, most recently Dying for Time: Proust, Woolf, Nabokov (Harvard University Press, 2012) and Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (Stanford University Press, 2008). His work has been the subject of a conference at Cornell… read more »

Chris Impey

University Distinguished Professor, Astronomy, University of Arizona

Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has over 220 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000… read more »

Adam Kirsch

Senior Editor at The New Republic

Adam Kirsch is a senior editor at The New Republic and a columnist for Tablet Magazine. He is the author of two books of poetry, The Thousand Wells and Invasions, and several other books, including most recently Rocket and Lightship: Essays on Literature and Ideas.

Sheldon Solomon

Professor of Psychology and Ross Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Skidmore College

Sheldon Solomon is Professor of Psychology and Ross Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Skidmore College. As an experimental social psychologist (with a B.A. in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College, and PhD from the University of Kansas), his interests include the nature of self, consciousness, and social behavior. His work with Jeff Greenberg (at the… read more »

Polly Young-Eisendrath

Psychologist, Jungian Psychoanalyst

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., is a psychologist, speaker, Jungian analyst, and has published 15 books including The Self-Esteem Trap, The Resilient Spirit, and Women and Desire. Her most recent book, The Present Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Discovery is an unsentimental meditation on the healing power of love in the face of early onset… read more »

3 comments on “The Search for Immortality

  1. Given the growing sci/med-based sector of this topic – as well as science being mentioned in the event description – I’m a bit surprised that a geneticist, biologist and/or neuroscientist is not on the panel. While the focus seems to be the possible development of sci/tech giving us the ability to (as it’s referred to) upload our neural state that forms the physical foundation of “self,” “mind,” “consciousness” or other ineffable qualia construct, the panelists may have only secondary knowledge of said efforts, and thus be unable to speak to them in great depth.

    For those interested in an example of this sector, I’d suggest reviewing http://www.carboncopies.org/ prior to the panel discussion.

    See you there!

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