Animula
Sir: Professor Ayer ('Postscript to a post- mortem', 15 October) asserts that 'Des- cartes has few contemporary disciples. Not many philosophers of whatever persuasion believe that we are spiritual substances.' It is clear too that he is not one of the few admitting to the conviction that we are such beings, which could significantly be said to exist apart from our bodies.
Nevertheless he himself proceeds to describe a situation which, were it to arise, he Suggests might not improperly be de- scribed as involving the re-incarnation, after his eventual and final death, of Professor Ayer. But, for this welcome appearance of someone claiming to re- member his doings and sufferings to be accounted a re-incarnation, it would have had to involve a re-entering into a second body of a spiritual substance. Professor Ayer cannot consistently suggest that what he, along with most of his colleagues, believes could not even happen once might conceivably happen again.
Antony Flew
26 Alexandra Road, Reading
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