Summary of psychological continuity after death

• Parfit's Bundle theory sees continuity after death in terms of psychological connectedness:

  • any influence people have in life continues after death as long as the person is remembered
  • there is no such thing as a self: individuals are 'bundles' of ever-changing states of being
• Parfit identified links between his ideas and those of Buddhism:

  • Buddhists believe that the ever-changing combination of mental and physical energies occurring throughout this life is a process that continues after death
  • This suggests that the idea of some form of personal survival after death may be compatible with Bundle theory
• Functionalism thinks in terms of a computer, which works as input, processing and output of information:

  • mental states consist of the brain processing the inputted sense experiences and outputting the result of the process in the form of behaviour
• Dennett claims that the human brain's computer program consists of the experiences, memories and personality that form the narrative self:

  • These could survive the death of the individual through having been stored on another platform, such as a computer
  • This stored information of the individual's life would be psychologically continuous with what went before