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    Living creatures can be deathlessly annihilated (i.e., ce... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Living creatures can be deathlessly annihilated (i.e., cease to exist without dying).

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.An amoeba's existence ends when it splits, replacing itself with two amoebas, yet vital activities do not cease.
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    • 2.The existence of chlamydomonas ends when pairs of them fuse to form a zygote, yet vital activities do not cease.
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    • 3.If people could divide like amoebas, perhaps they too could cease to exist without dying.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Biological continuity of vital processes is not sufficient for identity persistence; what matters is psychological or narrative continuity (Parfit, Locke).
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    • 2.Amoeba fission destroys the original organism's identity even if metabolism continues, meaning fission constitutes a form of death for the original individual.
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    • 3.Therefore, the amoeba case demonstrates death-with-continuation-of-life, not deathless annihilation, collapsing the distinction the claim relies upon.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotelian hylomorphism holds that an organism's form (soul) just is the organization of its living matter; when that organized unity dissolves into two, the original form ceases—this is death.
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    • 2.The absence of a corpse or cessation of metabolism does not entail the absence of death; death is defined by loss of substantial form, not by biological arrest.
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    • 3.Classifying fission as 'deathless annihilation' smuggles in a Cartesian res-cogitans conception of the self that cannot be assumed without begging the question against hylomorphic and animalist accounts.
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    Topics

    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    Amoeba fission destroys the original organism's identity even if metabolism cont...An amoeba's existence ends when it splits, replacing itself with two amoebas, ye...Aristotelian hylomorphism holds that an organism's form (soul) just is the organ...Biological continuity of vital processes is not sufficient for identity persiste...
    +5 moreShow less
    Classifying fission as 'deathless annihilation' smuggles in a Cartesian res-cogi...If people could divide like amoebas, perhaps they too could cease to exist witho...The absence of a corpse or cessation of metabolism does not entail the absence o...The existence of chlamydomonas ends when pairs of them fuse to form a zygote, ye...Therefore, the amoeba case demonstrates death-with-continuation-of-life, not dea...

    Similar

    If something ceases to exist, it ceases to be alive.80%The body ceases to exist at death77%To cease to be alive is to die.77%Human beings will cease to be actual in the future (i.e., will die)77%

    Source

    AI-extracted3/3 agreementValid
    SEP: death
    Discussion of amoeba splitting and chlamydomonas fusing
    View source passageHide passage
    What about the second question: can creatures cease to exist without dying? Certainly things that never were alive, such as bubbles and statues, can be deathlessly annihilated. Arguably, there are also ways that living creatures can be deathlessly annihilated (Rosenberg 1983, Feldman 1992, Gilmore 2013). Perhaps an amoeba’s existence ends when it splits, replacing itself with two amoebas, and the existence of chlamydomonas ends when pairs of them fuse to form a zygote. Yet when amoebas split, and chlamydomonas fuse, vital activities do not cease. If people could divide like amoebas, perhaps th...
    Extraction notes

    The premises accurately reflect the passage's examples of amoeba splitting and chlamydomonas fusing as cases where living creatures cease to exist without dying (since vital activities continue), and the passage explicitly presents these as support for the claim that living creatures can be deathlessly annihilated.

    Validity:

    Confidence: The text presents these as arguable possibilities rather than certainties, but the argumentative structure is clear.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit