Eternal oblivion is an expression sometimes used to describe what might occur afterdeath.[1]
In theApology of Socrates (written byPlato), afterSocrates 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 amigration of the soul orconsciousness from this existence into another, and that thesouls of all previously deceased people will also be there. This excites Socrates, because he will be able to conduct hisdialectic inquiries with all of the greatGreek 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.[2]
Cicero, writing three centuries later in his treatiseOn Old Age, in the voice ofCato 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 theRomanpoet andphilosopherLucretius in his first-century BCdidactic poemDe rerum natura and by the ancientGreek philosopherEpicurus in hisLetter to Menoeceus, in which he writes:
Accustom yourself to believing that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply the capacity for sensation, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore, a correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terrors for him who has thoroughly understood that there are no terrors for him in ceasing to live. Foolish, therefore, is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the prospect. Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer.[3][4]
According to most modern neuroscience theories of consciousness, the brain is the basis ofsubjective experience,agency,self-awareness, andawareness of the surroundingnatural world. Whenbrain death occurs, allbrain function ceases.[5]
Manyneuroscientists andneurophilosophers, such asDaniel 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 thereticular activating system or thethalamus, appear to benecessary for consciousness becausedysfunction of or damage to these structures causes a loss of consciousness.[6] Through a naturalist analysis of themind, it is regarded as being dependent on the brain, as shown from the various effects of brain damage.[7]
Paraphrasing philosopherPaul 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."[8]
Thomas Clark, founder of Center forNaturalism, wrote a paper titled "Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity" (1994).[9][10] He critiqued what he saw as a flawed description of eternal oblivion as a "plunge into darkness". When some imagine their deaths, they project themselves into a futureself which experiences an eternal silent darkness. This is wrong, because without consciousness, there is no awareness ofspace and no basis fortime – 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 toneuroscientistGiulio 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."[11]
