Briefly About Immortality (en)

2024-10-15

philosophy

0. (Premise) The world is a unity of opposites. If there is A, then there is not A (Law of Double Negation). If there is temporal, there is eternal; if there is changing, there is unchanging; if there is mortal, there is immortal.
   Clarification: This isn’t dividing all things into two categories (“here are changing things, there are unchanging ones”). The changing and unchanging are one (Allegory of the Cave).

1. Therefore, if something changes, it remains fundamentally unchanged. That is: the changing is unchanging.
   Our experience confirms this. The “I” today and the “I” ten years ago may share no common atoms in the body—yet it remains me.

2. Thus, a principle of unity exists, binding all parts into a whole. This principle shapes my body over time while being independent of it. Consequently, it exists beyond time.

3. This principle of unity—the unchanging core—is best called “meaning” (meaning as a phenomenon’s essence. Meaning cannot be destroyed or altered. Even destroying an object while declaring “we destroyed it” confirms its meaning persists—otherwise, what are we discussing?

Summary of aspects in every thing:

1. Unity as such – the world’s unity.
2. Unchanging – substance, essence, being, ideal, meaning.
3. Changing – mode, manifestation, accidents, phenomenon, existence, real, matter.
4. Unity of unchanging and changing – the thing itself.

Without the unchanging, we could neither think nor derive laws about the world.

The unchanging in humans is often called soul. The soul is:

1. Life principle (self-motion—contains cause of motion within itself).
2. Principle of bodily form (the aforementioned unity principle).
3. Inner world, consciousness. Principle of inner psychic unity.
4. Purpose-realizing principle.

The soul is a synthesis of changing and unchanging: mutable through motion, yet immutable through unifying matter. This synthesis means change within fixed limits. Things remain themselves until exceeding their semantic boundary. (A human crossing this boundary becomes superhuman—transcending ontology and losing original meaning, i.e., dying).

Ice example: Molding ice preserves its “ice” meaning. Melting it into water or steam destroys “ice” but preserves “water element” meaning. Why?

• When ice melts, its meaning remains unchanged—we don’t call liquid water “ice.” Matter flows between meanings.
• Matter embodies broader meanings (“water element” encompasses ice/water/steam).

4. Ultimately, all meanings embody the universal concept of “Being” (Сущее).

This applies only to non-living things, indifferent to their definition—lacking subjectivity to claim meaning as their own. Living nature differs: the soul gathers matter into a specific form (its meaning) and actively maintains it. A living being cares about its definition—thus striving to preserve its form.

Therefore, the soul—whose primary principle is eternity/immutability—seeks to manifest this principle in its material emanation.