Death and Immortality
Listen now
Description
In his series on thought about infinity through the centuries, Adrian Moore has considered the topic through the lenses of philosophy, theology and mathematics. Now, as the series reaches the penultimate episode, the focus is firmly on us. Adrian ponders our finite nature and confronts the question of whether, if we could, we really would want to live for ever. He brings us the Czech composer Janacek's opera, with its eponymous heroine Elina Makropulos. Her father, the court physician, has procured an elixir of life for her but, far from making her eternally happy, her long life has become unbearably tedious. Some philosophers fully sympathise with Elina Makropulos and celebrate our finite nature. Others lament it. But as Adrian discovers, there is consensus on one point - the fact that one day our life will end doesn't rob it of meaning. Indeed, it is our very sense of our own finite nature, argues John Cottingham, Professor Emeritus at Reading University, that produces what St Augustine called 'the restlessness of the human heart' - our constant desire to reach out for more. A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.
More Episodes
Published 09/30/16
Adrian Moore reaches the end of his journey through two and half millennia of philosophical thought about the infinite. In the final episode, he comes to the conclusion that his voyage through the worlds of philosophy, theology, mathematics and cosmology has in the end led him to ourselves and...
Published 09/30/16
Does space go on for ever? Are there infinitely many stars? These are some of the questions Adrian Moore explores in the eighth episode in his series about philosophical thought concerning the infinite. With the help of the theories of the Ancient Greeks through to those of modern cosmologists,...
Published 09/28/16