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Page 1 of 11 I
PHILONOUS Greetings, dear friend. What are you pondering about so lonely in this beautiful park?
HYLAS Ah, that is you? I am glad to see you. Last night I worked hard to develop an idea which promises infinitely much to mankind.
PHILONOUS What kind of precious idea is that?
HYLAS I arrived at the conviction (which actually is certainty) that people will some time achieve immortality.
PHILONOUS Do I get this right? How is that, you are not unfaithful to materialism which you have hitherto lectured on, do you?
HYLAS Never. My idea does not collide with materialism, on the contrary, it necessarily follows from it.
PHILONOUS I am all ears. Do explain, my friend.
HYLAS As you know, nothing exists beyond matter. These clouds, these autumn trees, this pale yellow sun, we finally - these are all material objects, that is, collections of atoms; the various properties of the objects, however, are due to the difference in their atomic structures. Because those are the same oxygen, carbon, or iron atoms, whether they are in stones, leaves, or in our blood. Those formations differ solely by their construction, by the different positions of their particles, that is, by their structure. Therefore one can say quite generally that there are only atoms and their structures. Hence I posed myself the question what is the reason that I still feel to be the same Hylas which used to play here as a little boy, despite all the years which passed in the meantime. Is this feeling of individual identity - I am asking myself - caused by the identity of the building material of my body, i.e., the atoms of which it is composed? But it cannot be like this. For we know through science that the atoms of our bodies are constantly replaced owing to the meals and drinks that we take and the air that we breathe. Bone, nerve, and skin cells continuously exchange their atoms so fast that after a couple of weeks all material particles which made up my organism can be found floating in the waves of a river or in a cloud; nonetheless I continue to exist and I feel the continuity of my personality. What is this due to? Surely not my unchanged atomic structure. Just take into consideration that the new atoms of my body are not the same which were there a month ago, they are, however, of the same kind, and that is quite enough. Thus I posit: The identity of my existence depends on the identity of my structure.
PHILONOUS Agreed. And then?
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