This page is meant to summarize the notions, theories, and arguments discussed in the last part of the class. To prepare for the final exam, be sure you know what each of the following mean, and what bearing they have on the issues we discussed in class.
Life and Death
- process-based definitions of life vs ingredient-based definitions
- Feldman’s “Jonah objection” to vitalism
- difference between the process of dying, the event of death, the state/fact of being dead
- the Termination Thesis
- what does it mean to be essentially alive? is being essentially alive the same as being immortal?
- the possibility of destroying a bouquet of flowers without destroying any flowers
- Epicurus’ argument that your own death isn’t bad for you
- what is hedonism? what are some examples of non-hedonistic theories of value (“axiologies”)?
- intrinsic vs extrinsic/indirect/derivative badness; comparative badness
- Feldman’s Deprivation/Counterfactual account of the badness of death, the challenges Feldman discusses in Chapter 9
- Lucretius’ argument that it’s unreasonable to regard no longer being alive as worse than not yet being alive
Did not have opportunities to discuss these:
acting for your own purposes vs acting for selfish purposesfeeling good because you got what you aimed for vs aiming for feeling good