Personal Ontology

Mystery and Its Consequences

Andrew Brenner (Hong Kong Baptist University)

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Cambridge University Press
21 August 2025

Oriental & Indian philosophy; Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge; Popular philosophy; Reincarnation & past lives

What are we? Are we, for example, souls, organisms, brains, or something else? In this book, Andrew Brenner argues that there are principled obstacles to our discovering the answer to this fundamental metaphysical question. The main competing accounts of personal ontology hold that we are either souls (or composites of soul and body), or we are composite physical objects of some sort, but, as Brenner shows, arguments for either of these options can be parodied and transformed into their opposites. Brenner also examines arguments for and against the existence of the self, offers a detailed discussion of the metaphysics of several afterlife scenarios - resurrection, reincarnation, and mind uploading -- and considers whether agnosticism with respect to personal ontology should lead us to agnosticism with respect to the possibility of life after death.

By: Andrew Brenner (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009367066
ISBN 10: 1009367064
Pages: 249
Publication Date: 21 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Andrew Brenner is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University. He has published articles in journals including Analysis, The Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy of Science, Synthese, Erkenntnis, and Philosophy East and West.

Reviews for Personal Ontology: Mystery and Its Consequences

'A welcome contribution to an important debate. It brings light to dark areas and never resorts to easy answers. Its treatment of so-called 'no-self' views is especially valuable.' Eric Olson, University of Sheffield