What makes death bad? The question I will try to address here is: what do we lose when we die. The deprivation account defends that death is bad because it deprives you from the goods you would have had in your live. As such, it does not commit you to any value system and can accept a wide range of “goods”. It can be paired with hedonism, but it can also take into account alternative types of value, such as narrative unity or desert.
There is a similar approach, the desire-based account, that defends that death is bad because it frustrates your categorical desires. Two versions of this theory can be distinguished, depending on whether they focus on local desires (Williams) or global ones (Singer). I will argue that this account of the badness of death is problematic. …show more content…
I tend to shift towards hedonistic more than preference utilitarianism, but it may be more a matter of intuition at this moment, and I cannot really justify it. At this stage, I am not certain if I need to do it or not. Right now I think I will leave the question open and decide which approach to take in the subsequent chapters.
What makes death worse? The question guiding this section is: what matters in surviving?
We normally regard some deaths more tragic than others, for example, we believe that, all things considered, death is worse at 20 than at 90. Closer to my own subject, it can de defended that the death is a chimp is a greater harm to the chimp than the death of a lizard is to the lizard. Is there a way of making sense of these intuitions? (I really hope so) And how?
Here I will discuss characteristics such us: -personhood -self-consciousness -psychological unity (as in Parfit’s personal identity) -is there a gradation in the welfare of different individuals -Previous gains in life (this one I do not think is very relevant to my research but it explains the difference of
There is a similar approach, the desire-based account, that defends that death is bad because it frustrates your categorical desires. Two versions of this theory can be distinguished, depending on whether they focus on local desires (Williams) or global ones (Singer). I will argue that this account of the badness of death is problematic. …show more content…
I tend to shift towards hedonistic more than preference utilitarianism, but it may be more a matter of intuition at this moment, and I cannot really justify it. At this stage, I am not certain if I need to do it or not. Right now I think I will leave the question open and decide which approach to take in the subsequent chapters.
What makes death worse? The question guiding this section is: what matters in surviving?
We normally regard some deaths more tragic than others, for example, we believe that, all things considered, death is worse at 20 than at 90. Closer to my own subject, it can de defended that the death is a chimp is a greater harm to the chimp than the death of a lizard is to the lizard. Is there a way of making sense of these intuitions? (I really hope so) And how?
Here I will discuss characteristics such us: -personhood -self-consciousness -psychological unity (as in Parfit’s personal identity) -is there a gradation in the welfare of different individuals -Previous gains in life (this one I do not think is very relevant to my research but it explains the difference of