J.M.E. McTaggart

Substance, Self, and Immortality

By (author) Ramesh K. Sharma

Hardback - £135.00

Publication date:

03 December 2015

Length of book:

544 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739186756

J.M.E. McTaggart seeks to critically expound and appraise the British philosopher’s thought with respect to three principal themes of his philosophy: substance, self, and immortality. Ramesh Kumar Sharma guides the reader through the labyrinths of McTaggart’s intricate arguments and defends many of McTaggart’s highly unorthodox doctrines and conclusions. While doing this, Sharma draws on the works of, among others, Berkeley, Hegel, and Leibniz, and at the same time attacks numerous modern-day physicalist theories that propound mind-brain identity as against the presumed reality of the self and consciousness. This work is thus recommended both for philosophers and researchers interested in: (1) such perennial metaphysical subjects as reality, existence, possibility, the basic ontological categories of substance, qualities, and relations (universals); (2) the question of the reality of the self; (3) McTaggart’s overall vision of the universe or Absolute, and his rejection of the more or less predominant view that the Absolute is God; (4) McTaggart’s unique doctrine, after Plato, of the immortality of the self combined with (the self ’s) pre-existence, post-existence, and plurality of lives; and (5) his extraordinary, but important, views on perception.
This well-presented and diligently-researched book provides a closely written, in-depth analysis of the work of the last great British idealist, John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart. . . Sharma brings a refreshingly balanced and objective analysis to McTaggart’s philosophy; in doing so, he provides a thorough resource that will encourage others to look at McTaggart afresh and see him as a philosopher worthy of the closest scrutiny in the twenty-first century.