Toward A New Eternalist Paradigm for Afterlife Studies: The Case of the Near-Death Experiences Argument

TLDR

Contemporary Western culture censures death because its conceptual implications sit at the boundary between reductionism and metaphysics, yet no effective epistemology resolves this conflict. The article examines Near‑Death Experiences as a case where reductionist and metaphysical perspectives clash, aiming to analyze the epistemological antinomies of death’s ontological representations. It does so by conceptually dissecting the antinomies between death as a passage and death as absolute annihilation within the NDE framework. The analysis reveals a logical contradiction between monistic reductionism and its ontological counterpart, suggesting a new paradigm that integrates ecological and eternalist views.

Abstract

In contemporary Western culture, death has been widely censured because of its conceptual implications; it lies at the boundaries between reductionism and metaphysics. There is not yet an efficacious epistemology able to solve this contraposition and its consequent collision with science and tradition. This article analyzes Near Death Experiences (NDEs) as a prototypical argument in which the two perspectives conflict. Specifically, it analyzes the epistemological antinomies of the ontological representations of death, inhering in passage versus absolute annihilation. Indeed, the NDEs theme permits the examination of the logical contradiction between monistic reductionism and its ontological counterpart to improve the discovery of a new paradigm that integrates the ecological with eternalist views.