... is it necessarily immortality, though it is a necessary (pre)condition of it. Note also that we are not seeking the 'survival' that Beethoven endures through the performances of his great symphonies - but actual after-death continuance - and to achieve this, three theories are put forward - dualism, reconstitutionism and the astral body thesis. `The crux of the matter lies in the validity of the dualist stance. Dualists maintain that we are composite beings of both corporeal matter and incorporeal "soul". This soul must be the "essence" of human existence - otherwise, it becomes nothing more than a bizarre appendage, much like an orthodox internal organ. Naturally if the "true" person is incorporeal, one can argue for continuance after bodily death. Flew dubs this the Platonic-Cartesian viewpoint, objecting to Plato on the grounds that he, like so many dualists, automatically presumed a composite human nature without justifying the grounds for such ...

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