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Not everyone is forgotten after their death. We constantly refer to famous individuals from the past and discuss their contributions to the world and their theories. Such individuals have achieved immortality, where the latter is not physical, off-course, but intellectual or mental - their ideas and works live on. But then there are the mass of people who live, die and dissapear into oblivion because they left nothing of universal interest behind which would interest future generations. What was the meaning of their lives if no one is aware of them ever having existed, after they have been dead for a few hundred years to the extent that not even their distant progeny remember them? They might as well never have existed at all. That is why we strive towards achieving immortality in this sense - leave your mark or be forever forgotten.

What are your views on this?

we do?

well for those who have children passes on their genes to coming generation so in a sense they kind of are immortal through their descendants

Well, some people do. If they have descendants at all - what about those who don't? Even if they do, their very distant descendants are likely not to be aware of who their predecessors were a long way down the line. And even if they do know, they might not even care who they were and never even talk about them. In my opinion one should be remembered not merely by your descendants, but by all future generations - that can only happen when you achieve fame through significant contributions you've made to the world - such as through art, music, philosophy, science, etc.

Not everyone can make those contributions to the world... sometimes the people who were forgotten are the people who were stepped on by the immortal in question... a rung on a ladder if you will

Im going to give immortallity a try. I'll be immortal on a trial basis. If i like it, I'll take it up full time, otherwise I can choose not to continue with it.

and when you come out of la la land give us a holler

eleven, you're white sig is blinding my eyes - haven't got my snow skiing glasses here.

Immortality is a crutch for the insecure or frightened person. What do I care if the world remembers me? Does being remembered make a life worth living. Because Whitcomb L. Judson invented in 1893 how does that make his life worthy of more admiration than all the unkowns.

To strive to great heights and succeed only for the praise is meaningless. And who cares if you are remembered after death? You won't, you'll be dead.

Is it nice to be recognized when you accomplish something of merit, yes. But if you Need to be recognized, what you lack is not fame, but the desire for fame or validation.

Some people do great things because the moment required great things to be done. Some people do great things purely out of chance or circumstance. Some people do great things to achieve greatness.

One person did what they had to do, one person was lucky to do what they did, and the last person was just an attention whore.

Well, the great Nietzsche himself said that one should strive towards achieving greatness rather than goodness.

great Nietzsche???

I thought you didn't care for Neitzche philo? In fact, didn't you say he was a bore?

philosophy in general is a bore.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I said Plato was a bore! Go look in my posts. Nietzsche was anything but a bore.

My bad

Nietzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsche is a bore too

^ spelling mistake!

nah, in Norway you need a doctors prescription to buy his stuff since all his work is considered and labeled as sleeping pills

Its a nice theory but it apears to have gaps in it, as we know the world has been around for millions of years, but fame only seemed to arise at the birth of christ (which never happen btw) so the oldes fame we have is 2005 years (just lets not get tecnical) so does this mean in another 2000 odd years even the bible will be lost in time, in the end everything is lost so i sergest dont try to be what your not if you were ment for fame it will find you, you can not find it, sorry to rip you theory apart but this is mearly my opinion.

then please explain the immortality of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and it s like then

Homer, the greek writer has been famous for 3000+ years - he wrote The Odysey and The Iliad.

Anyway, you're not ripping my theory apart - you are saying something completely indiferent to what I'm saying, and it's incoherent.

Who are they?.....just jokin'

Wow filth, I gotta agree with philo on this one. I have NO idea where you're coming from with that statement.

Nietzzzzsche would've liked you, because you've got a good sense of humour - he said one should at least laugh at one truth everyday. Also, he said sleeping is no mean art, one should try and avoid it.

well Homer is Bart and Lisas dad, Julius Ceasar is a dude William wrote about . And Alexander is actually that Irish bloke Colin something

Thanx for clearing up all my historical inaccuracies finti, I must've looked so stupid before!

The only thing that's really immortal is mortallity itself - death never dies!

dont you just hate it when we agree

Yeah, it's much more fun to disagree. Like Nietzsche said we must not only love our enemies, but also hate our friends.

yeah but Nietzsche was screwed in the head and that argument by him is ultra lame

There's actually real truth in what he said: it means that by loving our enemies we can learn from them - they disagree from us and unlike our friends they render an objective view on us - from that we can see where our shortcommings and faults are. We must hate our friends in the sense that they always agree with us and don't really tell us the truth about us - they don't point out our flaws.

Actually our enemies would show a bias to disliking us and often fabricate futher reasons to dislike us to justify their actions of hostility or defense. Enemies are not objective at all, in fact most of the time they are most critical and care not if their criticism are 100% true.



Then you have the wrong friends. A true friend can say what they have to say without fear of being condemned. If My best friend did not confront me and tell me what I didn't want to hear, then I could've made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

Perhaps Nietzsche had no true friends, and that is how he justified it. The only person who truly has no bias towards you is neither friend nor enemy, but someone who doesn't know you or someone who is apathetic to your situation. I still think that statement by Nietzsche is crap.

If you think Nietzsche's statement is crap, that's your opinion - I'd suggest that you think about what he said again - why would he be considered to be the most influential modern philosopher if he uttered crap? Maybe you are misunderstanding him.

I didn't think everything he said was crap, just the quote you brought forward. Not everything a genius says is pure genius.

I must say I always liked Lovecraft's view on immortality ~

"It is easy to remove the mind from harping on the lost illusion of immortality. The disciplined intellect fears nothing and craves no sugar-plum at the day's end, but is content to accept life and serve society as best it may. Personally I would not care for immortality in the least. There is nothing better than oblivion, since in oblivion there is no wish unfulfilled. We had it before we were born, yet did not complain. Shall we whine because we know it will return? It is Elysium enough for me, at any rate."

My opinion?????????? We are not immortal at all.

Certain philosophers are a bore. But Philosophy in general isn't.

Bore comes only after familiarity... that is what I say..
Bore comes after perfection... that is what philosophicus said..
so that is why familiarity=perfection....
perfection=wisdom, and so as to say familiarity=wisdom...

"The truth can be defined by different levels of familiarity" can also be written as "The truth can be defined by different levels of wisdom".. it is basicly the same!!!! And again, I have proven myself...

Prove to me that we are infinite?

What do you mean by "humans" being infinate?

Being is infinite, but human beings are finite as individual conditions.

explain why you state that being is infinate? and human beings are finate?? I really don't have a clue on what you are saying...

I'm only 17 you know...

I think it is good that we remember the ones who are gone.If it is not good to say anything bad about the dead at all.I hope I am remembered when I die.JM

Why should we remember them?

because everyones contribution to the world, regardless of how big or small has shaped the world to its current state.. whether that be a good contribution.. a bad one.. or a meaningless one

I think it all goes down to respect... Everyone has a right to or not to respect other person, matter, or situation... Different individuals have different principles, and according to that, people will always act differetly, and sometimes uniquely...

So, let me blow up the earth then...but wait, then no one will remember me!

ok so there is fame from befor the birth of christ (i am so stupid) but how far back does it go, my point is that in the end it will all be lost that is what i was meaning by ripping your theory apart as humanity will finaly die and then what? fame will be lost.

You're right - ultimately there will be no trace that humans ever existed, but I never said fame is eternal.

i think fame will die out with humanity

Very true!

You're only immortal for as long as you live.

That is a good point but some people gain immortality through there work or so its said, but many famous people have died and being forgotton

some people are more important to remember than others.

People won't remember Bush 60 years from now (unless he keeps up his "good" work :rolleyes

70 years later everyone remembers Adolf Hitler

Thats true all the evil figures in history seem to be remembers

It's becaue greatness is more powerfull and aught to be desired above goodness.

This sounds like the statement of an insecure person.

think your right there

Yeah, it was something Nietzche said in I think "Beyond Good And Evil".

so it was an unorginal thing to say?

kinda but relevent

We remember, but do we always care about what we remember?

Not until we encounter the coincidence of the usefulness of that knowledge...
Very good observation SaTsuJiN...

Kharma dog guy makes a good point, being immortal physiclly would be too painful emotionaly in my opinion, but mentally immortal sounds better, you could continue to make a difference in the minds of millions because they know all about whatever great, or terrible thing you did. Yes some happen upon it by chance, others strive for it, and some just enjoy what they are doing and get there while doing whatever it is.

I wouldn't want to be immortal physically...That would be like a prison. Maybe even a hell. To be spiritually immortal in what ever form besides something stupid, I think would be great.

To be remembered for something I cared about, would be a kind of immortality, but not a real one. More like a memory.

To be remembered for a tragedy would just leave a bad taste in everyones memory. And if I am immortal spiritually, I don't want to be around when the bad taste is being spit out aallllll over the place..

Just my thoughts.

Was thinking about this a little more...When a thought hit me..ouch,ok

Composers, physicists, astronomers, play writes, scientists...all of their knowledge keeps getting passed through the ages, so in a way they have
created immortality in some way.

Woody Allen once said that he doesn't want to achieve ommortality through his work, but through not dying. I don't want to live forever, death is man's best friend, however, my poems has been published all over the world and for that I am greatful - those words I've written is immortalised, well at least as long as mankind exists.

Yes philo, but many books eventually being published. Many books are discarded and thrown away in time. The words will eventually die. Nothing lasts forever.

That's exactly what I said: "at least as long as mankind exists."