Mortal and Immortal Questions

Catalog description

Conceptions of death and the afterlife not only structure traditional religious beliefs and practices, but they also subtly inform politics, scientific research, and societies more widely. How societies mete out punishment, engage in war, treat animals, distribute funds for scientific research or medical treatment, give legal expression to various moral mandates, etc. all are rooted in their attitudes and beliefs about death and the afterlife. This colloquium takes up a range of literary, political, and philosophical works from different cultures and periods that have framed in memorable, though often contradictory, ways some basic questions about death and immortality. How long should people live? How would immortality impact the planet's resources? And how might these questions inflect our views about recent technological efforts to extend life and ultimately to achieve immortality virtual or otherwise? Students will confront such questions from a variety of moral, scientific, and cultural perspectives and explore the role that death plays in their own lives and in those of other peoples and societies.