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2015 Welcome & Loebel Lecture in Neuroethics: Death and the self

Series
Philosophical perspectives on the causes of mental illness
This lecture investigates changing attitudes and beliefs about the persistence of the self.
Many revolutionary positions in philosophy – skepticism, materialism, hard determinism – have disturbing implications. By contrast, the revolutionary idea that there is no persisting self is supposed to have generally beneficial consequences. Insofar as the self does not persist, one should be more generous to others, less punitive, and have less fear of death. This talk will report recent experiments indicating that changing beliefs about the persistence of self does affect generosity and punitiveness. For attitudes about the self and death, we examined responses from Hindus, Tibetan Buddhists and Westerners; the results are complex and surprising.

More in this series

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Philosophical perspectives on the causes of mental illness

2015 Loebel Lecture 1: Neurobiological materialism collides with the experience of being human

The first of three public lectures which took place in Oxford in November 2015. Series title: The theoretical challenge of modern psychiatry: no easy cure
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Episode Information

Series
Philosophical perspectives on the causes of mental illness
People
Shaun Nichols
Keywords
death
persisting self
Department: Uehiro Oxford Institute
Date Added: 23/08/2017
Duration: 00:45:39

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