Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying

by Michael Cholbi (Editor), Travis Timmerman (Editor)

Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Classical and Contemporary Perspectives is the first book to offer students the full breadth of philosophical issues that are raised by the end of life. Included are many of the essential voices that have contributed to the philosophy of death and dying throughout history and in contemporary research. The 38 chapters in its nine sections contain classic texts (by authors such as Epicurus, Hume, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer) and new short argumentative essays, specially commissioned for this volume, by world-leading contemporary experts. Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying introduces students to both theoretical issues (whether we can survive death, whether death is truly bad for us, whether immortality would be desirable, etc.) and urgent practical issues (the ethics of suicide, the value of grief, the appropriate medical criteria for declaring death, etc.) raised by human mortality, enabling instructors to adapt it to a wide array of institutions and student audiences. As a pedagogical benefit, PowerPoints, discussion questions, and test questions for each chapter are included as online ancillary materials.

Genres: Philosophy, Anthologies, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published December 31, 2020

Reviews

[Joseph Yue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays and classic excerpts on the philosophy of death is, albeit comprehensive and interesting, not terribly impressive. A few sections are well done, but more have outright false assumptions to begin with, based on which everyone just argued in vain. The sections on the survival of death, in particular, gives only a caricature of what the Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection actually teaches - it is not a material recomposition, so no, there will not be any cannibal problems. The desirability of immortality is, again, discussed with the presupposition that the eternal life is qualitatively the same as what we have here & now. Part 3 examines 2 views on the value of death, namely, Epicureanism (that death is always neutral) and deprivationism (that death is good, bad or neutral depending on the quality of the deprived life), but both are deeply problematic, and the traditional view that death is always intrinsically evil regardless of the actual or potential situation gets no representation at all. Finally, it would be better to include more discourses on ethics regarding death, such as abortion (which btw is generally dismissed as irrational whenever it appears in this book), euthanasia, and the commemoration of the dead.

[Litfahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to a variety of issues in the ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics of death. Some of the essays aren't great, but others are bangers. All the shit about 'resurrection' and surviving after death is a waste of time though, you can skip that.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sinceramente, se queda corto en muchos aspectos, se centra demasiado en filósofos clásicos y pasa por alto a muchos otros que deberían incluirse cuando se está hablando de la cuestión de la muerte. Un poco decepcionante.

[Cayden Kirkpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide-ranging mix of chapters, some of which were more enlightening than others, but valuable as a whole