Death and Mortality in Contemporary PhilosophyThis book contributes to current bioethical debates by providing a critical analysis of the philosophy of human death. Bernard N. Schumacher discusses contemporary philosophical perspectives on death, creating a dialogue between phenomenology, existentialism and analytic philosophy. He also examines the ancient philosophies that have shaped our current ideas about death. His analysis focuses on three fundamental problems: (1) the definition of human death, (2) the knowledge of mortality and of human death as such, and (3) the question of whether death is 'nothing' to us or, on the contrary, whether it can be regarded as an absolute or relative evil. Drawing on scholarship published in four languages and from three distinct currents of thought, this volume represents a comprehensive and systematic study of the philosophy of death, one that provides a provocative basis for discussions of the bioethics of human mortality. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 11 | |
Part Two Theory of Knowledge About Death | 49 |
Part Three Does Death Mean Nothing To Us? | 149 |
Conclusion | 213 |
| 221 | |
Index of Names | 249 |
| 255 | |
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Common terms and phrases
afterlife analysis another’s death anthropology argument authentic dying Axiochus Being-towards-death Bioethics biological brain Brain Death c’est certainty consciousness considered constitutes continues Dasein dead person decease definition of death deprived desires discussion engelhardt entity Epicurean Epicurus evil of death example existence existential Experience of Death experientialism fact fear finitude functions future Heidegger’s human Dasein human death human person Ibid Immortality implies impossible individual interests intuitive irreversible Jean-Paul Sartre Jeff mcmahan Landsberg Leben Levinas living longer Lucretius maintain Marcus tullius Cicero Martin Heidegger Max Scheler meaning Möglichkeit mort mortality natural death neocortical death nothingness of death one’s ontical ontological organism personal death perspective Peter singer phenomenology phenomenology of death philosopher pleasure Plutarch possibility posthumous present priori projects proponents of neocortical proposes question realized Sartre’s Scheler self-consciousness sense Simmel so-called personal properties someone Søren Kierkegaard survivor temporality thanatological thing Thomas Nagel tion Todes tristram H Vladimir Jankélévitch