Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine. William James

Abstract

(1842-1910), became one of the most eminent of American philosophers and psychologists. He was a teacher at Harvard (1872-1907);, at first of physiology and anatomy, later of psychology and philosophy. This book was published in 1898 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge. This material was prepared for Religion-Online by Ted & Winnie Brock. Immortality is not incompatible with the brain-function theory of our present mundane consciousness. It is compatible in fully individualized form. Every memory and affection of one's present life is to be preserved. Preface James answers his critics who claim his thoughts are a pantheistic idea of immortality, not the Christian idea (survival in strictly personal form). He answers that one may conceive the mental world behind the veil in as individualistic a form as one pleases, without any detriment to the general scheme by which the brain is represented as a transmissive organ.