The Tree of Life

Film director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) re-examines the quest for eternal life initially explored in his film The Fountain. Is man’s yearning for eternal youth genetically predetermined? Is the longing for everlasting life part of our survival instinct? Or is the quest one our minds fabricate to insulate us against the fear of dying? He discusses these questions and more with Patrick Grim, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook, who works in logic, philosophy of mind, computer modelling, ethics and metaphysics. Grim is author of The Incomplete Universe, The Philosophical Computer, editor of Mind & Consciousness: 5 Questions and founding co-editor of over twenty volumes of The Philosopher’s Annual. $20