Eternal oblivion
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Eternal oblivion (also referred to as non-existence or nothingness)[1][2][page needed] is the
philosophical or religious concept of one's consciousness permanently ceasing upon death. This concept
is often associated with religious skepticism and atheism.[3]
According to contemporary scientific theories of consciousness, the brain is the basis of subjective
experience, agency, self-awareness, and awareness of the surrounding natural world.[citation needed]
When brain death occurs, all brain function permanently ceases. Many people who believe that death is
a permanent cessation of consciousness also believe that consciousness is dependent upon the
functioning of the brain. 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 damage
to these structures or their lack of function causes a loss of consciousness.[citation needed]
Through a naturalist analysis of the mind (an approach adopted by many philosophers of mind and
neuroscientists), it is regarded as being dependent on the brain, as shown from the various effects of
brain damage.[4]
Consciousness after death
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This article is about the neuroscience of consciousness and death. For beliefs about life after death, see
Afterlife.
Śmierć ("Death"), a 1902 painting by Jacek Malczewski
Consciousness after death is a common theme in society and culture in the context of life after death.
Scientific research has established that the mind and consciousness are closely connected with the
physiological functioning of the brain, the cessation of which defines brain death.[citation needed]
However, many believe in some form of life after death, which is a feature of many religions.
Contents
1 Neuroscience
2 Death
3 Near-death experience (NDE)
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is a large interdisciplinary field founded on the premise that all of behavior and all of the
cognitive processes that constitute the mind have their origin in the structure and function of the
nervous system, especially in the brain. According to this view, the mind can be regarded as a set of
operations carried out by the brain.[1][2][3][4][5]
There are multiple lines of evidence that support this view. They are here briefly summarized along with
some examples.
Neuroanatomical correlates: In the field of neuroimaging, neuroscientists can use various functional
neuroimaging methods to measure an aspect of brain function that correlates with a particular mental
state or process.
Experimental manipulations: Neuroimaging correlational studies cannot determine whether neural
activity plays a causal role in the occurrence of mental processes (correlation does not imply causation)
and they cannot determine if the neural activity is either necessary or sufficient for such processes to
occur. Identification of causation and necessary and sufficient conditions requires explicit experimental
manipulation of that activity. If manipulation of brain activity changes consciousness, then a causal role
for that brain activity can be inferred.[6][7] Two of the most common types of manipulation
experiments are loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments. In a loss-of-function (also called
"necessity") experiment, a part of the nervous system is diminished or removed in an attempt to
determine if it is necessary for a certain process to occur, and in a gain-of-function (also called
"sufficiency") experiment, an aspect of the nervous system is increased relative to normal.[8]
Manipulations of brain activity can be performed in several ways:
Pharmacological manipulation using various drugs which alter neural activity by interfering with
neurotransmission, resulting in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior.
Psychoactive drugs are divided into different groups according to their pharmacological effects;
euphoriants which tend to induce feelings of euphoria, stimulants that induce temporary improvements
in either mental or physical functions, depressants that depress or reduce arousal or stimulation and
hallucinogens which can cause hallucinations, perception anomalies, and other substantial subjective
changes in thoughts, emotion, and consciousness.[citation needed]
Electrical and magnetical stimulations using various electrical methods and techniques like transcranial
magnetic stimulation. In a comprehensive review of electrical brain stimulation (EBS) results obtained
from the last 100 years neuroscientist Aslihan Selimbeyoglu and neurologist Josef Parvizi compiled a list
of many different subjective experiential phenomena and behavioral changes that can be caused by
electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex or subcortical nuclei in awake and conscious human
subjects.[9]
Optogenetic manipulation where light is used to control neurons which have been genetically sensitised
to light.[citation needed]
Symptoms of brain damage: Examining case studies (like the case of Phineas Gage) and lesion studies
are the only sources of knowledge regarding what happens to the mind when the brain is damaged.
Various symptoms have been documented.[10][11]
Mental development/brain development correlation: The brain grows and develops in an intricately
orchestrated sequence of stages, and this development is correlated with the development of various
mental capabilities.[12][13][14] Impairments in the growth and development of the brain also result in
various neurodevelopmental disorders.
Death
Main article: Death
See also: Neural correlates of consciousness and disorders of consciousness
Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death was once defined
as the cessation of heartbeat (cardiac arrest) and of breathing, but the development of CPR and prompt
defibrillation have rendered that definition inadequate because breathing and heartbeat can sometimes
be restarted. Events that were causally linked to death in the past no longer kill in all circumstances;
without a functioning heart or lungs, life can sometimes be sustained with a combination of life support
devices, organ transplants and artificial pacemakers.[citation needed]
Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to
"brain death" or "biological death" to define a person as being dead; brain death being defined as the
complete and irreversible loss of brain function (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain
life).[15][16][17][18]
Near-death experience (NDE)
Main article: Near-death experience
A near-death experience (NDE) is a personal experience associated with impending death,
encompassing multiple possible sensations. Research from neuroscience considers the NDE to be a
hallucinatory state caused by various neurological factors such as cerebral anoxia, hypercarbia,
abnormal activity in the temporal lobes and brain damage.[19] [20]
Contents
1 In philosophy
2 Legal use
3 Oblivion and subjectivity
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
In philosophy
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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 basically two opinions about it.
The first is that it is a migration of the soul or consciousness from this existence into another, and that
the souls of all previously deceased people will also be there. This excites Socrates, because he will be
able to conduct his dialectic inquiries 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. Indeed, Socrates says, 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 poet and philosopher Lucretius in his first-
century BC didactic poem De rerum natura and by the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus in his Letter
to Menoeceus, in which he writes;[5][6]
"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."
Paraphrasing philosopher Paul Edwards, Keith Augustine and Yonatan I. Fishman note 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".[7]
Contemporary atheist scientists Steven Pinker and Sean Carroll assert that death is equivalent to eternal
oblivion, as physical theories based on scientific materialism allow for no mechanism to continue
consciousness after death.[8][9]
Legal use
The term "eternal Oblivion" has been used in international treaties, such as in Article II of the Treaty of
Westphalia 1648.[10][11] 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).[12]
Oblivion and subjectivity
Thomas W. Clark, founder of Center for Naturalism, wrote a paper titled "Death, Nothingness, and
Subjectivity" (1994).[13][14] 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. For Clark, in oblivion there
isn't 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."[15]
