Abstract
To truly make the case for a naturalistic afterlife that is factually plausible and emotionally pertinent, we have to return to the standard view of time and an evolutionary explanation of our consciousness and notion of self. First, it is established that important parts of the self do not depend on consciousness, contrary to popular belief. Further, the mental properties that make up personality/identity run on a continuum from the personal to the collective. This sets the stage for using the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio’s process theory of self, which regards consciousness as physically based and evolving, as the framework for making the crucial move in the book’s whole argument. It is proposed that we have a nonconscious communal self: that part of our personality through which we unwittingly enact social roles that help regulate societal well being. This nonconscious communal self lives on after death as part of inherited behavioral predispositions that are at the core of the process of cultural evolution.
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Harmon, D. (2017). Grounded. In: A Naturalistic Afterlife. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57978-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57978-8_6
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