Earn Death Narrated By Geoffery Scarre Offered In Physical Book
awkward book to review, due to its dual character,
On the one hand, it is an admirably clear and digestible survey of philosophers' responses to
death, Scarre presents the views of even jargonheavy juggernauts like Heidegger concisely and comprehensibly, and his discussion ranges across history from Socrates to thest century, He looks at death from a number of angles: is it a 'harm' at all, and if so to whom and exactly when does the harm take place What makes it a 'bad thing' Would immortality really be preferable What makes a life 'good' anyway, and how does death fit in to that picture What is the 'correct' attitude to bear towards dying and death and oblivion The possibility of an afterlife gets short shrift.
Why is oblivion after death fearful but oblivion before birth trivial
On the other hand, the answers philosophy has given to these questions, if fairly represented here, smack of trite observations, elaborations of the obvious, special pleading, and grandiloquent terminology in the service of heroic nitpicking.
There is much of interest, much to engage with and chew on but this reader came away unconvinced by most of the views presented, Personally I would have welcomed more discussion of a person's 'public identity' as something separate to the person herself, as an approach to the question of how one can be 'harmed' by impacts on reputation and failure to fulfil ambitions after death.
Dubious notions like the 'Cambridge change' favoured by the author 'relational' change in an object that is really a change in something else smack more of tangential parlour games than of nailing the issues.
Still, I repeat: it made me think, which is what philosophy should do I suppose and I enjoyed it,
Includes notes, bibliography and index, What is death How should the knowledge of our finitude affect the living of our lives and what are the virtues suitable to mortal beings Does death destroy the meaningfulness of life or would life that never ended be eternally and absurdly tedious Can death really be an evil if, after death, we no longer exist as subjects of goods or evils How should we respond to the deaths of others and do we have any duties towards the dead Geoffrey Scarre addresses these important questions and many others in his introduction to the philosophy of death.
Drawing from a wide variety of philosophical and literary sources, Death offers a highly readable study of some of the major ethical and metaphysical riddles concerning death and dying, Scarre shows that, far from being a morbid subject, reflecting on death and its significance is an illuminating way of reflecting on life, .