Well-Being and Death

by Ben Bradley

Overview

Well-Being and Death addresses philosophical questions about death and the good life: what makes a life go well? Is death bad for the one who dies? How is this possible if we go out of existence when we die? Is it worse to die as an infant or as a young adult? Is it bad for animals and fetuses to die? Can the dead be harmed? Is there any way to make death less bad for us? Ben Bradley defends the following views: pleasure, rather than achievement or the satisfaction of desire, is what makes life go well; death is generally bad for its victim, in virtue of depriving the victim of more of a good life; death is bad for its victim at times after death, in particular at all those times at which the victim would have been living well; death is worse the earlier it occurs, and hence it is worse to die as an infant than as an adult; death is usually bad for animals and fetuses, in just the same way it is bad for adult humans; things that happen after someone has died cannot harm that person; the only sensible way to make death less bad is to live so long that no more good life is possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191615740
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	03/03/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Ben Bradley is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. He has published articles in journals such as Nous, Mind, Ethics, and Philosophical Studies, on such topics as the evil of death, the nature of desire, and theories of well-being.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction xiii

1 Well-Being 1

1.1 The Concept of Well-Being 1

1.2 Theories of Well-Being 4

1.3 Well-Being and Time 18

1.4 A Paradox 30

1.5 Conclusions and Implications 40

2 The Evil of Death 47

2.1 Instrumental Value and Difference-Making 47

2.2 Overdetermination, Preemption, and Causation 52

2.3 Genuine Evils, Fitting Attitudes, and the Symmetry Problem 60

2.4 Harm 65

2.5 An Argument For the Difference-Making Principle 69

3 Existence and Time 73

3.1 Is All Badness Temporal? 74

3.2 Could Death Be a Temporal Evil? 79

3.3 When Is Death Bad? 84

3.4 Objections 92

3.5 The Value of Nonexistence 98

4 Does Psychology Matter? 113

4.1 When Is it Worst to Die? 113

4.2 The Cure 117

4.3 Abortion 121

4.4 Desires and Time-Relative Interests 126

4.5 Cows 147

5 Can Death be Defeated? 155

5.1 The James Dean Effect 157

5.2 Old Age and Progeria 164

5.3 Previous Gains and Discounts 166

5.4 Realism 170

Conclusion 177

Bibliography 181

Index 191