John Martin Fischer
Does our awareness of inevitable death give meaning to life? If so, would immortality render life meaningless? How do our beliefs about the afterlife effect our current behaviors, attitudes, and character? In the absence of supporting scientific evidence, why do so many believe in life after death? Questions about personal mortality are existential concerns that know no geographical or cultural bounds. As leader of The Immortality Project, Dr. John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Riverside, seeks to explore these questions with a five million dollar grant, dedicated to scientific, philosophical, and theological projects that advance understanding of immortality, our beliefs in immortality, and of how each of these is relevant to the ways in which we live our lives.
John Martin Fischer is Distinguished Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of California, Riverside. He has written widely on such topics as free will, moral responsibility, ethical puzzles and principles, the meaning of life, the metaphysics (and ethics) of death, and immortality. Fischer has published over one hundred and twenty-five articles and is the author of three books: The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control; Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility; and Four Views on Free Will. He is the author of three collections of essays all published by Oxford University Press: My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility; Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will; and Deep Control: Essays on Free Will and Value. He has served as Director of the UC Riverside Honors Program for eight years and as Chair of the Department of Philosophy for five years. He received the Center for Ideas and Society Distinguished Achievement Award, the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Distinguished Research Award, the Graduate Division Dissertation Advisor and Mentoring Award, and the Academic Senate Faculty Research Lecturer Award. He will deliver the Faculty Research Lecture in Spring, 2013. Dr. Fischer is the President of the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division.
More information at:
http://www.sptImmortalityProject.com
At 2 PM on Saturday May 25th, examine immortality and engage in an exploration in the latest installment of the Science and Spirituality lecture series. Does our awareness of inevitable death give meaning to life? If so, would immortality render life meaningless? How do our beliefs about the afterlife effect our current behaviors, attitudes, and character? In the absence of supporting scientific evidence, why do so many believe in life after death? Questions about personal mortality are existential concerns that know no geographical or cultural bounds. We have engaged a truly outstanding speaker for this exploration. As leader of The Immortality Project, Dr. John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Riverside, seeks to explore these questions with a five million dollar grant, dedicated to scientific, philosophical, and theological projects that advance understanding of immortality, our beliefs in immortality, and of how each of these is relevant to the ways in which we live our lives.
Dr. John Martin Fischer has written widely on such topics as free will, moral responsibility, ethical puzzles and principles, the meaning of life, the metaphysics (and ethics) of death, and immortality. Fischer has published over one hundred and twenty-five articles and is the author of three books: The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control; Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility; and Four Views on Free Will. He is the author of three collections of essays all published by Oxford University Press: My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility; Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will; and Deep Control: Essays on Free Will and Value. He has served as Director of the UC Riverside Honors Program for eight years and as Chair of the Department of Philosophy for five years. He received the Center for Ideas and Society Distinguished Achievement Award, the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Distinguished Research Award, the Graduate Division Dissertation Advisor and Mentoring Award, and the Academic Senate Faculty Research Lecturer Award. He will deliver the Faculty Research Lecture in Spring, 2013. Dr. Fischer is the President of the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division.