在本研究計畫中，我要處理的主要課題是死亡的本質(the nature of death)，對於死亡究竟是怎麼一回事？必須回到如何看待「人」？或者什麼是「我」？這些問題。而這些問題正好就是「個人同一性(personal identity)」關切的課題。我所要處理的第一個課題，就是在死亡哲學中相當值得深思的問題，「我死後是否會繼續存活？」從表面上來看，這個問題似乎是沒有意義的，因為既然已經死了，又如何回答是否繼續活著呢？不過，實際上這個問題跟我們如何看待「人」有著莫大的關係，例如二元論者認為人除了身體以外，還有精神實體的部分(或以靈魂稱之)，且精神實體的部分不會毀壞，如果死亡僅僅是身體的腐壞，但靈魂仍然能夠繼續存活，那麼，「我」仍然能夠繼續存活。除了二元論者對死亡的觀點以外，我在本計畫中要處理的核心課題就是物理主義者對於死亡的本質的看法，其中身體理論與人格理論之間的探討，將會是這個計畫最重要的部分。這些探討將會從個人同一性的判準開始，最後希望能夠論證對於死亡的本質而言，究竟是身體理論或者人格理論更合理一些。相信本計畫的研究成果也能成為其他領域在研究死亡相關課題時的重要參考。
In this research project, the main subject I will deal with is "the nature of death". What is it about death? In order to understand the meaning of death, we must return to how to understand the meaning of "human being"? Or what is identical with "me"? These issues are precisely the subject of "personal identity." The first subject I have to deal with is a question worth pondering in the philosophy of death, "Will I continue to survive after death?" In the first glance, this question seems to be meaningless, since how can one continue to live when he is dead? However, in fact, this question is not meaningless and the answer will depend on how we understand the "human being". For example, dualists believe that in addition to the body, people have a part of the spiritual entity (or called by the soul), and the part of the spiritual entity is not destroyed. If death is merely the decay of the body, but the soul can still survive, then "I" can still survive. In addition to the dualist views on death, the core subject I will deal with in this project is the physicalist perspective on the nature of death. The discussion between body theory and personality theory will be the most important part for this project. These discussions will begin with the criterion of personal identity, and finally hope to be able to demonstrate whether the theory of body or personality is more reasonable for the nature of death. I believe that these research results of this project can also become an important reference for other fields when studying death-related topics.
