Philosophy 2073F/G Lecture : October 23.docx
13 Nov 2012
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Argues that immortality would ultimately be entirely undesirable. Two conditions need to be met for immortality to be an attractive possibility: 1) the future person must be identical to the individual. Williams considers the possibility of an immortality comprised of losing oneself in endless intellectual pursuit (as in plato) Life is potentially attractive and so meet condition 2: 2) the life of the future person must be attractive to the individual, nothing can meet both. There are two possibilities: our character is ixed for the duration of our immortality, or our character changes over time as our endless life progresses. In the former case, our life would inevitably become boring, monotonous, alienating, etc: fixed character. The argument here is fairly straightforward: with your character fixed, you are indulging in the same sorts of pleasures, activities, etc. forever. But things are only enjoyable for so long. Sooner or later, this will begin to get tedious.
