| by Ishara de Silva
( April 5, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) John Martin Fischer is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. His main research interests lie in free will, moral responsibility, and both metaphysical and ethical issues pertaining to life and death. He is the author of The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control; with Mark Ravizza, Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility; and My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility. He has been placed in charge of a new research project which includes studying rebirth. I interviewed him for the Sri Lanka Guardian, where he said that he would be extremely happy to get research project proposals from Sri Lanka.
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In my own opinion, being moral – being respectful and generous – does tend to be beneficial even in this world and this life. This is a fundamental idea of ancient Greek ethics, and I think it has a lot of wisdom. That’s not to say that benefit should be our motive in being moral, but it is a powerful insight.
Ishara: I know that your research includes other things apart from Rebirth, but can we focus on that? Firstly, how do you propose to test whether Rebirth is true?
Fischer : The research will be done by people who win competitions for the grants. The competitions are announced on our site sptimmortalityproject.com
The current competition is for scientific projects. The competition for theological proposals will be announced by Sept, 1 2013. I do not know in advance which proposals we will fund.
Ishara: Are you aware that in Eastern philosophy, Rebirths are linked to deeds. Morality is central to where you are born into the next life. How to you propose to tackle this issue?
Fischer: Again, this could be the focus of a proposal that will come forward, but I cannot say in advance.
Ishara: How does this reflect on your sadness of the death of your grandfather at the hands of the Nazis? After all, the people who committed the atrocities will have a difficult time if Rebirth is true.
Fischer: Excellent point. I very much hope that the people who committed these atrocities receive justice in some form or another. I agree that this is an attractive feature of the rebirth model. But one can still be sad that one has lost someone in this world.
Ishara: Are you aware that Buddhists say kindness is the factor that brings beauty in looks, so that we can all be beautiful in future lives. What's your response to this?
Fischer : I like the idea that we can all achieve good things, no matter who we are or what class we were born into. This sort of view, which focuses on future lives, reminds me somewhat of the Christian view that we can achieve something better in the afterlife if we are good in this life. Although these are attractive pictures, I myself would hope that we can achieve greater opportunities for self-fulfillment in this life. (I do realize that this goal is compatible with Rebirth models and Judeo-Christian models, but my emphasis would be more on – this – life.) Also, allow me to mention that my wife must have been very kind in her previous life!
Ishara: They also say that respect is the factor that brings power, and generosity wealth. Do you think there could be any truth in this theory? What's your immediate response or is there another way you intend to deal with the Rebirth issue?
Fischer : Again, I should emphasise that I myself will not be doing the primary research, but I will be supervising competitions to distribute funds to support research. In my own opinion, being moral – being respectful and generous – does tend to be beneficial even in this world and this life. This is a fundamental idea of ancient Greek ethics, and I think it has a lot of wisdom. That’s not to say that benefit should be our motive in being moral, but it is a powerful insight.
Ishara de Silva was appointed by the Opinion Leader panel (UK) to participate in research on global issues during his tenure editing Britain’s Asian Times newspaper. He was also invited by Opinion Leader to sit in on a global study on future leaders among “movers and shakers” in a wide range of industries.
 John Martin Fischer is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy ...){kind=link}