瀕死經驗的解釋及其在哲學上的限制

本文的寫作目的是回應關啟文的〈靈魂存在嗎?——瀕死經驗的啟示〉，因為關引述頗多雲龍苗 (Pim van Lommel) 的論點，我的討論也會涉及對雲的批評。關與雲認為如果瀕臨死亡的病人在NDE (Near-Death Experience) 發生的時間有認知及精神經驗，則會反映出人的經驗內容及意識可以獨立於身體機能而存在（我稱之為「經驗獨立論」）。又如果這是真的話，則我們有理由否定唯物論或物理主義了。關啟文甚至認為，我們可以因此而得到有關二元論或靈魂存在的證據。我不認同關的論點。我在本文提出三個論點反駁「經驗獨立論」，分別稱之為「生死有別論」、「時間不明論」以及「解釋限制論」。
The objective of this paper is to reject Kwan’s claim in his paper “Does the Soul Exist? What Near-Death Experiences Reveal.” As Kwan draws heavily on references from Pim van Lommel, I also reject van Lommel’s position. Kwan and van Lommel’s claim is that the phenomenon of NDE supports the view that people’s experiential content and their consciousness exist independently of their physical bodies. I raise three objections to Kwan. First, I argue that there is a fundamental difference between life and death; therefore, the phenomena of NDE may give us little idea of whether some form of experience exists after death. Second, there is no evidence that an NDE happens at the exact moment the patient’s body shuts down. Third, the potential biological and physiological explanations of NDE are excluded by Kwan and van Lammel without good reason, and the explanations they offer to replace them are far from convincing. Copyright © 2016 by Global Scholarly Publications.