Personal tools
You are here: Home → Philosophy → Death → content → sessions → Session 18 - The badness of death, Part III; Immortality, Part I
 

Session 18 - The badness of death, Part III; Immortality, Part I

by jsl57 — last modified 10-22-2009 09:41 AM
Document Actions
  • Print this
  • Bookmarks

The discussion of the badness of death continues by asking whether it is bad that we do not exist before our birth. The views of a number of contemporary philosophers, such as Tom Nagle, Fred Feldman, and Derek Parfit, are introduced. Then Professor Kagan turns to the subject of immortality. Would it be desirable to live forever, and if so, under what circumstances one might enjoy such a prolonged existence? The lecture concludes with Bernard Williams' take on immortality which posits that no kind of human life can continue to be enjoyable and attractive for eternity.

PHIL 176: Death

Lecture 18 - The badness of death, Part III; Immortality, Part I << previous session | next session >>

Overview:

The discussion of the badness of death continues by asking whether it is bad that we do not exist before our birth. The views of a number of contemporary philosophers, such as Tom Nagle, Fred Feldman, and Derek Parfit, are introduced. Then Professor Kagan turns to the subject of immortality. Would it be desirable to live forever, and if so, under what circumstances one might enjoy such a prolonged existence? The lecture concludes with Bernard Williams' take on immortality which posits that no kind of human life can continue to be enjoyable and attractive for eternity.  

Reading assignment:

Montaigne, Michel de. "That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die" In The Complete Essays.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, Part III, chapter 10.

Williams, Bernard. "The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality." In Language, Metaphysics, and Death. Edited by John Donnelly. New York: Fordham University Press, 1978. pp. 229-242

Class lecture:

Transcript
html
 Audio
mp3
 Video
medium bandwidth
low bandwidth
high bandwidth
Document Actions
  • Print this
  • Bookmarks
Creative Commons License Yale University 2011. Some rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated in the applicable Credits section of certain lecture pages, all content on this web site is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Please refer to the Credits section to determine whether third-party restrictions on the use of content apply.