Immortality

Stephen CaveSDX Joint Publishing Company

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Series: New Knowledge Library (New Edition)

Summary

Why are humans so fascinated by the idea of "living forever"? In this book, British philosopher Stephen Cave offers an ambitious answer: the resistance to death, and the various "immortality narratives" humans have woven to evade it, are precisely the inner driving force that shaped civilization. He sorts the ways humans cope with death anxiety into four paths: first, "staying alive," using alchemy, elixirs, and today's anti-aging and transhumanist technologies to directly prevent bodily death; second, "resurrection," the belief that the dead will one day rise again; third, "the soul," the notion that spirit or consciousness can persist beyond the body; fourth, "legacy," living on in others' memory through achievements, fame, and descendants. Cave ranges from The Epic of Gilgamesh and Qin Shi Huang's quest for immortality to modern life-extension research and transhumanist experiments, weaving together history, religion, psychology, and thought experiments to propose the so-called "paradox of death": death is both an inevitable fact and a condition we cannot truly imagine. This book is neither comforting chicken soup nor a cold technical report, but an honest inquiry: if immortality were truly possible, would we really want it? And how would population, justice, meaning, and boredom turn against that desire?

Editor's review

关于死亡的书写很多，但把“求永生”当作文明引擎来处理的并不多见。凯夫的可贵之处在于，他先承认自己也想活下去，再冷静地拆解人类为此想出的四条路：不死之身、死而复生、不灭灵魂、不朽名声。他既不嘲笑宗教，也不盲信技术，而是用大量历史典故与思想实验，把“长寿”这个看似实验室里的话题，重新推回到意义与伦理的层面。读这本书，你会发现自己看待衰老、体检报告、健身房和墓碑的眼光都变了。它适合放在书桌而不是床头，因为每一章都会让你停下来想一想。

Who it's for

A good fit for

对死亡哲学、宗教与文化史感兴趣的读者
关注抗衰老、超人类主义等前沿议题的人
喜欢《人类简史》式跨学科叙事的社科读者
希望认真思考生命意义与有限性的人

Not a good fit for

期待具体养生方法或医疗建议的读者
偏好轻松故事、拒绝抽象思辨的读者
只想快速浏览结论、不愿跟随长篇论证的人

Reading tips

先读导论与“四条路径”总述，再按兴趣选读某一章，不必强行按序推进。
每读完一条“永生路径”，写下自己最认同与最怀疑的地方，对照现实生活再想一遍。
搭配一部死亡主题的文学或电影一起看，如《吉尔伽美什史诗》或相关纪录片，效果更佳。

About the publisher

SDX Joint Publishing Company China · Founded in 1932

SDX Joint Publishing Company is a publisher known for its humanities and social science titles, covering classics, culture, history, social fiction and politics. Its catalogue of 826 books includes Chinese and foreign literary classics such as The Scholars, Camel Xiangzi and Selected Short Stories of Chekhov, scholarly works such as Studies of Chinese Cave Temples, A Study of the Tuoba History (Revised Edition) and The Nine-Rank System: A Prehistory of the Imperial Examination, and translations such as Red Star Over China and Notes from the House of the Dead. Its authors include renowned Chinese and foreign writers such as Wu Jingzi, Lao She, Su Bai and Chekhov, as well as scholars and translators such as Chen Xiaoming, Wang Benhua, Guo Changbao and Zhu Xiansheng. Its publishing character lies in balancing the popularisation of classics with academic depth, with attention to textual quality and the transmission of knowledge.

FAQ

这本书是讲科学还是讲哲学？

两者兼有，主线是哲学与思想史。作者以人类应对死亡的四种叙事为框架，其中会大量涉及炼金术、宗教传统以及当代抗衰老与超人类主义研究，但落点始终在“该不该想要永生”这一伦理与意义问题上。

读之前需要哲学基础吗？

不需要。作者是面向普通读者写作，语言清楚，论证多用故事和思想实验，即使没读过哲学著作也能跟上；若有一定西方哲学背景，会更容易看出他与柏拉图、海德格尔等人的呼应。

书中会不会有很多宗教说教？

不会。复活与灵魂只是作为两类历史悠久的“永生叙事”被分析，作者保持分析性立场，既不宣教，也不轻率否定信仰，而是考察它们如何回应“死亡悖论”。

可以和《永生的海拉》混淆吗？

这是两本完全不同的书。《永生的海拉》讲海拉细胞与医学伦理的纪实故事；《永生》则是一部关于人类追求不朽的哲学与文明史著作，阅读前请留意作者与副标题。

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