Main content

The afterlife

Suppose you knew that after your natural death the human race would die out - how would that alter how you live your life?

Suppose you knew that after your natural death the human race would die out – perhaps, for some reason, humans had become infertile. How would that alter how you live your life? How would it change your attitude to the ideas and projects to which you are currently committed? This thought experiment is posed by American philosopher Samuel Scheffler. He believes that in this scenario, most of what currently gives our life significance would come to feel meaningless. This leads him to conclude that we care deeply about the survival of our species. We need the human race to survive for our lives to seem valuable.

Presenter David Edmonds
Producer Ben Cooper

Image: People in a crowd (Credit: ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Sun 6 Sep 2020 21:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 22 Sep 2018 19:50GMT
  • Sun 23 Sep 2018 02:50GMT
  • Sun 23 Sep 2018 18:50GMT
  • Tue 25 Sep 2018 17:50GMT
  • Sat 5 Sep 2020 07:50GMT
  • Sat 5 Sep 2020 15:50GMT
  • Sat 5 Sep 2020 17:50GMT
  • Sun 6 Sep 2020 03:50GMT
  • Sun 6 Sep 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 6 Sep 2020 21:50GMT