Abstract
This article examines the contribution of the
French 19th-century thinker Allan Kardec to the controversial
issue of the survival of human personality after bodily death.
The discussion is set against the background of modern epistemology.
It is shown that, by breaking with all the previously attempted
metaphysical and theological approaches, Kardec brought the
dispute to a new ground, in which fruitful, empirically-based
research on this old and important issue has, in principle,
become possible.
