Philosophical comment
May. 15th, 2009 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tigertoyI wrote a comment in another journal that I want to preserve for myself where I'll see it later. Out of respect for the original entry being locked (and this being a public post) that's all I'm saying here. (The person I'm replying to is free to reveal zirself if zie wishes.)
I'm with you in finding the notion that consciousness would continue forever terrifying. Just ceasing to be doesn't frighten me. I'm not through enjoying being conscious, so ceasing to be isn't attractive and I do try to avoid it for now, but the scary parts are the unpleasant stuff that so often comes between fully functional and not there any more, and being unable to completely shake off that supposedly comforting notion that my soul might truly be immortal.
Of course, that's on an intellectual level. I still have the awful instinctive fear of death when the car starts to slip on that patch of ice. Our instinctive fear of death is one of those dirty deals we get, inevitably, because of being evolved creatures. The quality that makes us people is being able to consciously transcend instinct. We don't have quite enough of it.
I'm with you in finding the notion that consciousness would continue forever terrifying. Just ceasing to be doesn't frighten me. I'm not through enjoying being conscious, so ceasing to be isn't attractive and I do try to avoid it for now, but the scary parts are the unpleasant stuff that so often comes between fully functional and not there any more, and being unable to completely shake off that supposedly comforting notion that my soul might truly be immortal.
Of course, that's on an intellectual level. I still have the awful instinctive fear of death when the car starts to slip on that patch of ice. Our instinctive fear of death is one of those dirty deals we get, inevitably, because of being evolved creatures. The quality that makes us people is being able to consciously transcend instinct. We don't have quite enough of it.