Eternal oblivion

 ( Philosophy Of Death ) 

Eternal oblivion (also referred to as non-existence or nothingness)

is the philosophical, religious, or scientific concept of one's consciousness forever ceasing upon death. Pamela Heath and Jon Klimo write that this concept is mostly associated with religious skepticism, secular humanism, nihilism, agnosticism, and atheism.

(2025). 9781556438691, North Atlantic Books. . ISBN 9781556438691

According to most modern neuroscience theories of consciousness, the brain is the basis of subjectivity, agency, self-awareness, and awareness of the surrounding nature. When brain death occurs, all brain activity forever ceases.

David John Chalmers (1996). 9780585353135, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780585353135

Many and neurophilosophy, such as Daniel Dennett, believe that consciousness is dependent upon the functioning of the brain and death is a cessation of consciousness. Scientific research has discovered that some areas of the brain, like the reticular activating system or the thalamus, appear to be necessary for consciousness because dysfunction of or damage to these structures causes a loss of consciousness.

Through a naturalist analysis of the mind, it is regarded as being dependent on the brain, as shown from the various effects of brain damage. Quoting neuroscientist Sam Harris ( video ).

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In philosophy In the Apology of Socrates (written by Plato), after Socrates is sentenced to death, he addresses the court. He ponders the nature of death and summarizes that there are two major schools of thought on the afterlife. The first is that it is a Metempsychosis or consciousness from this existence into another, and that the of all previously deceased people will also be there. This excites Socrates, because he will be able to conduct his Socratic method with all of the great Greek heroes and thinkers of the past.

The other opinion about death is that it is oblivion, the complete cessation of consciousness, not only unable to feel but a complete lack of awareness, like a person in a deep, dreamless sleep. Socrates says that even this oblivion does not frighten him very much, because while he would be unaware, he would correspondingly be free from any pain or suffering. Socrates stated that not even the great King of Persia could say that he ever rested so soundly and peacefully as he did in a dreamless sleep.

Cicero, writing three centuries later in his treatise On Old Age, in the voice of Cato the Elder, similarly discussed the prospects of death, frequently referring to the works of earlier Greek writers. Cicero also concluded that death was either a continuation of consciousness or cessation of it, and that if consciousness continues in some form, there is no reason to fear death; while if it is in fact eternal oblivion, he will be free of all worldly miseries, in which case he should also not be deeply troubled by death. Similar thoughts about death were expressed by the Roman Republic poet and Philosophy Lucretius in his first-century BC Didacticism poem De rerum natura and by the ancient Greek philosophy Epicurus in his Letter to Menoeceus, in which he writes:

Paraphrasing philosopher Paul Edwards, Keith Augustine and Yonatan Fishman state that "the greater the damage to the brain, the greater the corresponding damage to the mind. The natural extrapolation from this pattern is all too clear – obliterate brain functioning altogether, and mental functioning too will cease." The Myth of an Afterlife, Michael Martin and Keith Augustine, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2015, p. 206. Psychologist Steven Pinker and physicist Sean Carroll assert that death is equivalent to eternal oblivion, as science finds no mechanism to continue consciousness after death.

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Legal use The term "eternal oblivion" has been used in international treaties, such as in Article II of the Treaty of Westphalia 1648. It has also been used in legislation such as in the English Indemnity and Oblivion Act 1660, where the phrase used is "perpetual oblivion" (it appears in several of the articles in the act).

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Oblivion and subjectivity Thomas Clark, founder of Center for Naturalism, wrote a paper titled "Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity" (1994).

(2025). 9780907845119, Imprint Academic. ISBN 9780907845119

He critiqued what he saw as a flawed description of eternal oblivion as a "plunge into darkness". When some imagine their deaths (including the non-religious), they project themselves into a future self which experiences an eternal silent darkness. This is wrong, because without consciousness, there is no awareness of space and no basis for time – there cannot be darkness, because to experience darkness, one must be conscious of it. For Clark, in oblivion there is even an absence of experience, as we can only speak of experience when a subjective self exists. According to neuroscientist Giulio Tononi, consciousness is "all we are and all we have: lose consciousness and, as far as you are concerned, your own self and the entire world dissolve into nothingness."

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See also

• Annihilationism
• Anattā
• Christian mortalism
• Consciousness after death
• Information-theoretic death
• Neural correlates of consciousness
• Nirvana

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Further reading

• Martin, Michael; Augustine, Keith. (2015). The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death. Rowman & Littlefield.

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