What is lost at death argument
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What is lost at death argument is a consideration of what actually happens to the body, at death, so that it no longer has a behavior, consciousness, and ixperiencitness. It appears that if you restore the structure and functioning of the body to the way it was before it had an accident that killed the body you would restore the behavior that it could have had before the accident if all other effecting external factors were the same. The behavior would give evidence that the same consciousness that would have been produced is now again being produced. The important question is: What, if any, ixperiencitness is being produced by this restored body? If you are your body, as many people believe then this restored body should continue to produce the same ixperiencitness. What if the structure and functioning of the restored body is very different from the way it was before death, does it still produce the same ixperiencitness? If the body produces the same ixperiencitness after restoration of the dead body as it did before death it means the original person is again experiencing being conscious.
Many people believe that once that you are dead you can never experience anything again. If this is true then what has been permanently lost at death that can not be restored. If the structure and functioning of the brain and body is restored closely enough like it was before death it will produce behavior like the original did before death. If asked questions about himself or herself, he or she will respond with the correct answers. Such as the age, date of birth, knowledge about friends and relatives etc. Close enough structure and functioning versions could answer questions correctly about people and events that the original had forgotten about. See: videntireplica unforgotten knowledge argument.
If a person does not believe in souls or some other supernatural aspects of the self what has been physically been lost at death? What kind of physical changes occur in the body that produce the death in the first place? Injury, old age, disease, cancer, organ failure, becoming too cold or too hot, poison, etc., are all way that can lead to the death of the body. What is actually happening to the body? The body can no longer function properly to sustain consciousness and consciously controlled behavior. The needed structure of the body parts break down. The individual cells die causing other cells to die that depend on them The cells need oxygen and other forms of energy producing chemicals to keep the cells in the body alive. It seems reasonable to assume that if you could reverse the process of cell death resulting in the restoration of proper organ functioning you could restore the body back to life. But who would you be restoring to life?
See also: Restoration of behavior experiments after death, Restoration of consciousness experiments after death, Restoration of ixperiencitness experiments after death, science of superimmortality,