Confrontations with the Reaper: A Philosophical Study of the Nature and Value of Death

by Fred Feldman

Overview

What is death? Do people survive death? What do we mean when we say that someone is "dying"? Presenting a clear and engaging discussion of the classic philosophical questions surrounding death, this book studies the great metaphysical and moral problems of death, concluding with a novel consequentialist theory about the morality of killing, applying it to such thorny practical issues as abortion, suicide, and euthanasia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198023500
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/29/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	420 KB

About the Author

Fred Feldman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Confronting the Reaper	3
	The Reaper--Mysterious and Evil	3
	The Structure of the Book	5
I	The Nature of Death
1.	The Search for Death Itself	11
	The Problems of Death	11
	Conceptual Analysis	12
	Analysis of Death or Criterion for Death?	14
	The Biological Concept of Death	19
	Life as a Part of Death	20
2.	Life-Functional Theories of Life	22
	Life Itself	22
	Some Preliminary Objections	25
	Aristotle's Life-Functional Analysis of Life	26
	Some Modern Life-Functional Analyses of Life	31
	The Matthews Approach	35
	Conclusion	38
3.	Vitalist Theories of Life	39
	Vitalism	39
	The Empirical Problem	42
	The Jonah Problem	43
	The Failure of Analyticity	45
	DNA-ism	46
	Genetic Informationism	51
	Problems for Genetic Informationism	54
4.	The Enigma of Death	56
	The Gift of Life	56
	The Biological Concept of Death	56
	Perrett's Analysis	58
	The Standard Analysis	60
	Puzzles About Suspended Animation	60
	Problems Concerning Fission and Fusion	66
	The Mystery of Death	71
5.	On Dying as a Process	72
	Two Senses of 'Dying,'	72
	Some Preliminary Proposals	73
	Smart's Analysis of Dying2	77
	Problems for Smart's Analysis	78
	A New Proposal	80
	More Mysteries of Dying2	85
	On Death and Dying2	87
6.	The Survival of Death	89
	The Termination Thesis	89
	Some Philosophers Who Have Accepted the Termination Thesis	91
	Doubts About the Termination Thesis	93
	The Argument from Definition	96
	The Argument from Dualism	97
	Corpses and People	100
	Death and Nonexistence As	104
7.	A Materialist Conception of Death	106
	A New Approach to Death	106
	The Lifeline	107
	Death Itself, "a Death," and Being Dead	108
	Death and Life	110
	Death and Existence	113
	Deaths, Lives, and Histories	115
	Death and Humanity	117
	Death and Personality	118
	A Materialist Way of Death	123
II	The Value of Death
8.	Epicurus and the Evil of Death	127
	Epicurus's Argument Against the Evil of Death	128
	Difficulties for the First Version of the Argument	133
	A New Version of the Argument	135
	The Fallacy in the New Version	137
	How Death Can Be Bad for the One Who Dies	138
9.	More Puzzles About the Evil of Death	143
	The Puzzles	143
	Axiological Preliminaries	146
	Things That Are Bad for People	148
	The Evil of Death	150
	Some Proposed Answers	152
	Conclusions	156
10.	Utilitarianism, Victimism, and the Morality of Killing	157
	"Thou Shalt Not Kill,"	157
	Hedonic Act Utilitarianism and the Morality of Killing	163
	Why HAU Fails to Explain the Wrongness of Killing	166
	Theories Based on Harm to the Victim	167
	And Why They Fail, Too	170
11.	Why Killing Is Wrong	173
	Ideal Act Utilitarianism	173
	Vitalistic Act Utilitarianism	174
	Hedono-vitalistic Act Utilitarianism	177
	Problems for HVAU	181
	Justicism	182
	Justicized Act Utilitarianism	185
12.	Abortion and the Failure to Conceive	191
	Three Examples	193
	Justicism, Murder, and the Failure to Conceive	198
	Justicized Act Utilitarianism and the Problem of Abortion	200
	The "Right to Life,"	205
	Advantages of This View	207
13.	The Morality and Rationality of Suicide	210
	Welcoming the Reaper	210
	Three Arguments for the Immorality of Suicide	211
	An Argument for the Irrationality of Suicide	215
	An Epistemic Argument Against the Rationality of Suicide	217
	"Calculative Rationality" and Suicide	219
	Euthanasia	223
14.	Epilogue	225
	Notes	229
	Bibliography	239
	Index	243

Editorial Reviews

"Lucid, sensible, and insightful throughout. The criticisms of alternative approaches are particularly penetrating, and the positive suggestions are thoughtful....I have considerable admiration for this fine book. Feldman talks sense about difficult, murky, and perplexing matters."—J.M. Fischer, Philosophical Review

"Exceptionally lucid and closely reasoned discussions of the nature of death, from a materialist point of view, and the (dis)value of death, from a consequentialist perspective."—Robert Frazier, Philosophical Books

"This book is nearly ideal for engaging students in philosophy. It addresses important and interesting topics, and it is a model of clear thinking. Feldman demonstrates in a way accessible to nonspecialists how to evaluate reasons for a position by casting them in the form of an uncomplicated argument and how to undermine those reasons by constructing a counterexample to a clearly identified premise. The books frequent summaries make it easy for an undergraduate to follow, and the choice of examples ranges beyond the standard science-fiction cases."—Edward Wierenga, Teaching Philosophy

"Confrontations contains useful and provocative contributions to the growing literature on the metaphysics and value of death. The extraordinary clarity of Feldman's style is also one of the book's virtues....Feldman has, through clear discussion and illuminating examples, enriched the framework in which philosophers may continue to examine important moral questions concerning death."—Stephen E. Rosenbaum, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

"Replete with imaginative examples, systematic arguments, and some off-beat humour."—Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher