Many important philosophers of the 20th century studied ghosts, here's how they explained them.

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Most people imagine philosophers as rational thinkers who spend their time developing abstract logical theories and firmly reject superstitious beliefs. But several 20th-century philosophers actively studied scary subjects such as clairvoyance, telepathy, and even ghosts.

Many of these philosophers, including Henri Bergson And William Jameswere interested in what we called psychic research. This was the academic study of paranormal phenomena, including telepathy, telekinesis, and otherworldly spirits.

These thinkers attended seances and attempted to develop theories about ghosts, life after death, and the powers manifested by mediums in trance. My recent archival research studied how these topics shaped 20th-century philosophy.

CD Broad (1887-1971) was professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Today he is recognized as one of the most important writers in the world. philosophy of time. He has also published on ethics, logic and the history of philosophy. What is less known, however, is that he was an active member of the Society for Psychical Research, a learned society dedicated to the study of paranormal phenomena. The society twice elected him president, and he published numerous articles on topics such as clairvoyance And poltergeists.

In his 1925 book, Mind and its place in natureBroad developed what is now known as the compound theory of ghosts. Broad argued that the human mind was a composite of two components. One of them was the physical factor, roughly corresponding to the body. The other was the psychic factor, which carries our mental content such as emotions or thoughts. The two jointly make up the human spirit, just as salt is composed of sodium and chloride.

Broad believed that after death the psychic factor could continue to exist on its own for a time and could enter, like a spirit, into a medium during a session.

Images in the ether

Another philosopher interested in ghosts and the spirits of the dead was HH Price (1899-1984). He was professor of logic at the University of Oxford and is best known for his publications on the philosophy of perception. However, like Broad, he was heavily involved in the Society for Psychical Research and participated in several international conferences devoted to the afterlife and telepathy.

In his presidential address to the society in 1939, Price attempted to offer an explanation for ghosts and hauntings.

At any given moment, he argued, your mind is full of mental images: the memory of your last vacation, the things you see outside your window, your hopes and expectations for the future. Price theorized that there is a substance, which he called psychic ether, which exists midway between matter and the human mind. He believed that this ether could carry the images that currently exist in your mind, even after you die. A collection of these images and memories can appear like a ghost to some particularly sensitive people.

What does ghost mean?

Casimir Lewy (1919-1991) was one of the most influential philosophical logicians of the 20th century. He spent most of his career at Cambridge University. library of the faculty of philosophy it bears his name.

Lewy is best known today for his work on logic, and few people know that he actually wrote his doctoral thesis (which was reviewed by Broad) about life after death.

He was primarily interested in the language and meaning of the terms people use to talk about ghosts and life after death. What does it mean to say that I could survive the death of my body? What kind of experiences would I need as a ghost for the statement that I survived my death to be true? Should I be able to see myself in the mirror or talk to people in the session room?

Lewy insisted that these questions must be answered before examining the empirical evidence regarding ghosts.

Following a series of scandalous and widely publicized discoveries of fraudulent mediums faking their supernatural powers and accusations Because of pseudo-scientific research methods, psychic research eventually moved to the margins of academia. Lewy, for example, never returned to write on these subjects after successfully passing his doctorate in 1943.

Nevertheless, despite its short lifespan, academic research in psychiatry had a significant influence on an entire generation of British philosophers. It shaped their view of time, causality and matter, and gave them the opportunity to think about one of life's most pressing questions: what happens after death?

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This article is republished from The conversation under Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Maty Moravec does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.