UBC CONTINUING STUDIES 2017
DR. MICHAEL GRIFFIN
UBC CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY
I D E A S O F I M M O R TA L I T Y
“The Solstice,” Iceland, by Trey Ratcliffe
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/4892434909/in/album-72057594049344877/
OVERVIEW
• March 9 • Introduction
• March 16 • Ancient Egypt
• March 23 • Greek Philosophy
and its Western Legacy
• March 30 • Buddhist Views
• April 6 • Views from Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic Faiths
• April 13 • Modern Scientific
Perspectives and Concluding
Discussions
OVERVIEW
• Approach
• Selective cross-cultural
survey, through a charitable
history of human ideas
• Resources from disciplines
including philosophy,
psychology, classics.
OVERVIEW
• All slides posted online:
http://socrates.arts.ubc.ca/ideas
• Email me:
[email protected]
OVERVIEW
• Today
• 1. Prelude
The Prince, the Saint, the
Fire, and the Feather
• 2. Key concepts
“For us believing physicists,
the distinction between past, present, and future
is an illusion, if a persistent one.”
A L B E R T E I N S T E I N , C A L A P R I C E ’ S Q U O TA B L E E I N S T E I N 7 5
1
PRELUDE
https://youtu.be/lsrOXAY1arg
RICHARD BURTON
https://youtu.be/rLB9qQyZ5IE
KENNETH BRANAGH
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
the heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
that Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause.
HAMLET III.1
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause. There's the respect
that makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
the Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely,
the pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
the insolence of Office, and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his Quietus make
with a bare Bodkin?
the insolence of Office, and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his Quietus make
with a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country, from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will,
and makes us rather bear those ills we have,
than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
and thus the native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
with this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action.
S A I N T PA U L
C A R AVA G G I O , T H E C O N V E R S I O N O F
S T PA U L ( O I L O N C Y P R E S S , 1 6 0 0 - 1 )
Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I
put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as
also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the
greatest of these is love.
PA U L , 1 C O R 1 3 : 8 - 1 3
THE BUDDHA
S I D D H Ā R T H A G A U TA M A
[S]uppose someone were to ask you, ‘This fire that has
gone out in front of you, in which direction from here has
it gone? East? West? North? Or south?’ Thus asked, how
would you reply?”
That doesn’t apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning
dependent on a sustenance of grass and timber, being
unnourished… is classified simply as ‘released’ [nibbuto].
Even so, Vaccha, any form… feeling… perception…
fabrication… consciousness by which one describing the
Tathagata would describe him: That the Tathagata has
abandoned… the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to
fathom, like the sea. ‘Reappears’ doesn’t apply. ‘Does
not reappear’ doesn’t apply. ‘Both does & does not
reappear’ doesn’t apply. ‘Neither reappears nor does
not reappear’ doesn’t apply.
B U D D H A , N A J J H I M A N I K ĀYA 7 2
(TR. BODY 2009)
ANCIENT
EGYPT
Osiris and Isis, go, announce to the gods of the Delta as
well as their akhs: This Unis has come, an imperishable
akh, as the one who is to be worshiped, (Osiris) who is
over the inundation: let the akhs in the water worship
him… This Unis has come, the Ennead’s fledgling, an
imperishable akh… (Unis 150-1)
Take your stand, Teti, in the fore of the Dual Shrine;
judge the gods. For you belong to the enduring ones
who surround the Sun and precede the morning
god.You shall be born at your months like the moon; the
Sun shall lean on you in the Akhet,Teti; the Imperishable
Stars shall follow you. (Teti 228)
E G Y P T, P Y R A M I D T E X T S , C . 2 4 0 0 B C E A N D L AT E R
(TR. ALLEN 2005)
Ka
Akh
Ba
Authenticity
Weighing of the ib with Ma’at
The Prince
Action in life
The Fire
Beyond description
The Saint
Completion
The Feather
Measuring the self
2
KEY CONCEPTS
OVERVIEW
• Today
• 1. Prelude
The Prince, the Saint, the
Fire, and the Feather
• 2. Key concepts
• Reflections from Socrates of Athens
Let us reflect in this way, too, that there is good hope that
death is a blessing, for it is one of two things: either the dead
are nothing and have no perception of anything, or it is, as we
are told, a change and a relocating for the soul from here to
another place. If it is complete lack of perception, like a
dreamless sleep, then death would be a great advantage. For I
think that if one had to pick out that night during which a man
slept soundly and did not dream, put beside it the other nights
and days of his life, and then see how many days and nights
had been better and more pleasant than that night, not only a
private person but the great king would find them easy to
count compared with the other days and nights. If death is e
like this I say it is an advantage, for all eternity would then seem
to be no more than a single night. If, on the other hand, death
is a change from here to another place, and what we are told is
true and all who have died are there, what greater blessing
could there be, gentlemen of the jury?
S O C R AT E S , A P O L O G Y 4 0 C - 4 1 D
Link to video shown in class: youtu.be/fqTs77YXTQM
Reading: See Course Webpage
OVERVIEW
• March 9 • Introduction
• March 16 • Ancient Egypt
• March 23 • Greek Philosophy
and its Western Legacy
• March 30 • Buddhist Views
• April 6 • Views from Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic Faiths
• April 13 • Modern Scientific
Perspectives and Concluding
Discussions