WEBVTT 00:02.730 --> 00:06.300 Professor Shelly Kagan: --Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich is 00:06.302 --> 00:09.302 surprised to discover that he's going to die. 00:09.300 --> 00:11.630 It's the sort of thing he's given lip service to, 00:11.634 --> 00:13.584 no doubt, over the course of his life. 00:13.580 --> 00:17.140 But when he finally gets ill and comes up to the fact of his 00:17.139 --> 00:20.579 mortality, that his body is going to sicken and eventually 00:20.577 --> 00:24.337 die, the fact of his mortality seems 00:24.342 --> 00:28.262 to shock him, seems to surprise him. 00:28.260 --> 00:31.470 We might say, on one level he believes that 00:31.467 --> 00:34.337 he was mortal. He's believed it all along. 00:34.340 --> 00:36.400 But at another level, at some deeper level, 00:36.400 --> 00:37.970 it comes as a surprise to him. 00:37.970 --> 00:40.960 He never really believed it. 00:40.960 --> 00:45.720 Now, I take it that we find Ivan Ilyich a perfectly 00:45.720 --> 00:47.720 believable example. 00:47.720 --> 00:50.880 That is, we think it's conceivable that somebody could, 00:50.882 --> 00:53.222 at some level, not really believe they're 00:53.224 --> 00:55.854 going to die. But I also take it that Tolstoy 00:55.852 --> 00:59.012 means to be putting forward more than just a claim that there 00:59.012 --> 01:00.752 could be such a person. 01:00.750 --> 01:02.250 "Look how bizarre he is. 01:02.250 --> 01:03.710 Let me describe him for you." 01:03.710 --> 01:09.380 But rather, the suggestion is meant to be that Ivan Ilyich's 01:09.378 --> 01:11.778 case is rather typical. 01:11.780 --> 01:14.430 Maybe all of us are in his situation, or at least most of 01:14.429 --> 01:15.659 us are in his situation. 01:15.659 --> 01:19.519 Or, at the very least, many of us are in his 01:19.522 --> 01:22.082 situation. That's a stronger claim, 01:22.079 --> 01:25.589 though I think it's not the sort of claim that's unique to 01:25.592 --> 01:28.732 Tolstoy, that all of us or most of us or 01:28.733 --> 01:33.503 many of us at the fundamental level don't really believe that 01:33.501 --> 01:35.251 we're going to die. 01:35.250 --> 01:38.130 You might ask, what kind of evidence could be 01:38.134 --> 01:39.384 offered for that? 01:39.379 --> 01:42.969 Offering a realistic scenario, a realistic description of such 01:42.965 --> 01:46.605 a person--Ivan Ilyich--doesn't give us any reason to think that 01:46.610 --> 01:49.550 most of us or many of us are in his situation. 01:49.550 --> 01:52.580 So, is there any reason to think that? 01:52.580 --> 01:56.020 You might ask, what kind of argument could be 01:56.018 --> 01:58.518 offered for a claim like that? 01:58.519 --> 02:03.639 What we'd be looking for, I take it, would be some kind 02:03.642 --> 02:09.052 of behavior on our part that calls out for explanation. 02:09.050 --> 02:12.870 And the best explanation is to be had--This is how the argument 02:12.871 --> 02:15.251 would go. The best explanation is to be 02:15.250 --> 02:18.120 had by supposing that those people who behave this 02:18.122 --> 02:21.232 way--Let's suppose many of us who behave this way. 02:21.229 --> 02:23.999 The best explanation of that behavior is to be found by 02:24.000 --> 02:27.290 claiming that at some level, at some fundamental level, 02:27.288 --> 02:30.648 we don't really believe what we claim to believe. 02:30.650 --> 02:35.340 We don't really believe what we give lip service to. 02:35.340 --> 02:39.560 Take somebody who perhaps suffers from some sort of 02:39.562 --> 02:42.182 compulsion to wash his hands. 02:42.180 --> 02:44.470 We ask him, "Are your hands dirty?" 02:44.470 --> 02:46.670 He might say, "No, of course not." 02:46.669 --> 02:49.779 And yet, there he is, going back to bathroom, 02:49.775 --> 02:51.605 washing his hands again. 02:51.610 --> 02:54.540 You might say, the only way to explain the 02:54.535 --> 02:57.385 behavior is to say that at some level, 02:57.389 --> 03:01.439 he really does believe his hands are dirty, 03:01.438 --> 03:05.678 despite the fact that he says they're not. 03:05.680 --> 03:08.440 Well, in the same way, if we could find some behavior 03:08.440 --> 03:10.830 on our part that calls out for explanation, 03:10.830 --> 03:13.140 that the best possible explanation would be that at 03:13.143 --> 03:15.413 some level we don't believe we're going to die, 03:15.409 --> 03:17.079 then we might say, look, this gives us some reason 03:17.084 --> 03:19.104 to think that we don't really believe we're going to die, 03:19.099 --> 03:22.289 even though we say we believe it. 03:22.289 --> 03:26.419 Suppose, for example, that if you really did believe, 03:26.424 --> 03:28.894 fundamentally, unconsciously, 03:28.889 --> 03:32.109 all the way down--however we should put it--if you really did 03:32.105 --> 03:36.695 believe you were going to die, the horror of that would lead 03:36.704 --> 03:41.484 you to start screaming and just keep screaming. 03:41.479 --> 03:44.369 Of course, this example reminds us again of Ivan Ilyich, 03:44.368 --> 03:47.518 who screams and screams and screams almost till his death. 03:47.520 --> 03:49.550 Well, suppose this was true. 03:49.550 --> 03:53.750 Suppose that if you--Suppose we believed--we had good reason to 03:53.753 --> 03:57.623 believe--if you really took seriously the thought that you 03:57.618 --> 04:01.518 were going to die, you couldn't stop screaming. 04:01.520 --> 04:04.490 But of course, nobody here is screaming, 04:04.487 --> 04:08.667 from which we can conclude none of us really do believe, 04:08.671 --> 04:12.021 fundamentally, deep down, that we're going to 04:12.019 --> 04:15.149 die. That would be a good argument 04:15.147 --> 04:19.067 if we had good reason to believe the conditional, 04:19.065 --> 04:20.775 the if-then claim. 04:20.779 --> 04:23.919 If only you really truly believed you were going to die, 04:23.919 --> 04:26.259 you would scream and scream and scream. 04:26.260 --> 04:27.650 That's the crucial premise. 04:27.649 --> 04:30.339 And of course, we don't have any good--as far 04:30.336 --> 04:33.876 as I can see--we don't have any good reason to believe that 04:33.878 --> 04:36.288 crucial premise. You might ask though, 04:36.294 --> 04:39.654 is there some other behavior, something else that should tip 04:39.651 --> 04:41.071 us off, could tip us off, 04:41.068 --> 04:44.058 as to whether or not we really do or don't believe that we're 04:44.061 --> 04:46.561 going to die? Well, here's the best that I 04:46.555 --> 04:49.255 can do. This strikes me as the most 04:49.258 --> 04:53.118 plausible contender for an argument like this. 04:53.120 --> 04:56.640 As we know, there are people who have brushes with death. 04:56.639 --> 04:58.439 They might be, for example, 04:58.440 --> 05:01.630 in an accident, and come close to being killed, 05:01.626 --> 05:04.116 but walk away without a scratch. 05:04.120 --> 05:09.310 Or suffer a heart attack and be on the operating table for some 05:09.307 --> 05:13.737 number of hours and then, thanks to cardiac surgery or 05:13.741 --> 05:16.671 what have you, be resuscitated. 05:16.670 --> 05:20.790 When people have these near brushes with death, 05:20.794 --> 05:26.174 it's easy to believe that the fact of their mortality is more 05:26.173 --> 05:30.143 vivid. It's more before their mind's 05:30.140 --> 05:32.510 eye. It's something that they now 05:32.513 --> 05:34.163 really truly do believe. 05:34.160 --> 05:38.250 And the interesting point is many people who have this sort 05:38.254 --> 05:41.224 of experience, for whom their mortality has 05:41.219 --> 05:43.159 become vivid, they often say, 05:43.163 --> 05:44.603 "I've got to change my life. 05:44.600 --> 05:48.400 I need to spend less time at the office and more time with my 05:48.403 --> 05:52.083 family, telling the people that I love that I love them, 05:52.079 --> 05:54.079 doing the things that are important to me, 05:54.083 --> 05:56.383 spend less time worrying about getting ahead, 05:56.379 --> 05:59.689 making money, getting the plasma TV," 05:59.694 --> 06:05.524 whatever it is. Let's suppose that this is true 06:05.519 --> 06:10.739 of all of us, or at least most of us. 06:10.740 --> 06:16.560 When we find the fact of our mortality is made vivid, 06:16.557 --> 06:22.037 when we really truly can see that we're mortal, 06:22.040 --> 06:25.700 then we change our priorities, stop giving all the time and 06:25.699 --> 06:29.609 attention to trying to get ahead in the rat race and spend more 06:29.610 --> 06:33.270 time with our loved ones doing what's important to us. 06:33.270 --> 06:36.810 Suppose that claim were true. 06:36.810 --> 06:39.940 Well, armed with that claim, we might notice, 06:39.936 --> 06:43.416 well look, of course, most of us do spend a lot of 06:43.419 --> 06:47.399 time trying to get ahead, trying to earn a lot of money, 06:47.397 --> 06:50.977 don't spend the bulk of our time doing the things that we 06:50.976 --> 06:53.976 really truly think are most important to us, 06:53.980 --> 06:58.160 don't tell our friends, don't tell our family members 06:58.159 --> 07:01.979 how much they mean to us, how much we love them. 07:01.980 --> 07:04.000 What are we to make of that fact? 07:04.000 --> 07:07.960 Well, maybe the explanation is, although we give lip service to 07:07.955 --> 07:12.355 the claim that we're mortal, at some more fundamental level, 07:12.355 --> 07:14.515 we don't truly believe it. 07:14.520 --> 07:16.590 The belief's not vivid for us. 07:16.589 --> 07:19.949 We don't believe it all the way down. 07:19.949 --> 07:24.009 Well, this is an argument--at least it seems to me--that has 07:24.006 --> 07:25.996 some chance of being right. 07:26.000 --> 07:28.220 I'm not at all convinced that it is right. 07:28.220 --> 07:30.630 But at least it doesn't seem to be the sort of argument, 07:30.629 --> 07:33.209 unlike some of the arguments I've considered last time about 07:33.213 --> 07:34.623 oh, nobody believes they're going 07:34.619 --> 07:36.969 to die because you can't picture being dead or what have you. 07:36.970 --> 07:40.250 This argument, I think, has some possibility 07:40.252 --> 07:43.782 of being right. It does seem as though people 07:43.777 --> 07:47.687 who have brushes with death change their behavior in 07:47.694 --> 07:49.234 significant ways. 07:49.230 --> 07:53.780 The fact that we don't behave in those other ways gives us 07:53.780 --> 07:58.330 some reason to believe that perhaps at some level we don't 07:58.331 --> 08:02.241 completely or fully or fundamentally believe we're 08:02.243 --> 08:05.543 going to die. As I say, I'm not sure whether 08:05.537 --> 08:06.897 that argument's right. 08:06.899 --> 08:11.599 But at least it's an argument worth taking seriously. 08:11.600 --> 08:15.170 Let me turn now to a different claim that sometimes gets made 08:15.167 --> 08:17.107 about death. This is the claim--not that 08:17.113 --> 08:18.683 nobody believes they're going to die; 08:18.680 --> 08:21.820 that's the one we've been talking about for the last 08:21.822 --> 08:25.272 lecture or so--but instead, the claim that everybody dies 08:25.273 --> 08:27.933 alone. This sounds like one of those 08:27.932 --> 08:30.752 deep insights into the nature of death. 08:30.750 --> 08:34.170 It's got that kind of air of profundity about it that 08:34.170 --> 08:37.460 philosophy's thought to have or aspires to have. 08:37.460 --> 08:40.200 Everyone dies alone. 08:40.200 --> 08:43.280 This is telling us something deep and important and 08:43.277 --> 08:45.737 interesting about the nature of death. 08:45.740 --> 08:48.420 Now, as it happens, this is one I'm going to be 08:48.418 --> 08:49.988 completely dismissive of. 08:49.990 --> 08:55.090 I think, as far as I can see, that the claim "we all die 08:55.092 --> 09:00.842 alone," however we interpret it, just ends up being implausible 09:00.844 --> 09:04.174 or false. I give it such a hard time each 09:04.168 --> 09:07.858 time I teach this class, that I'm often tempted to just 09:07.859 --> 09:10.729 drop it from the discussion altogether. 09:10.730 --> 09:12.860 Even though, if you've done the reading of 09:12.859 --> 09:14.729 the Edwards paper that I assigned, 09:14.730 --> 09:17.700 you have a series of quotes from Edwards in which people say 09:17.699 --> 09:19.209 things like, they die alone. 09:19.210 --> 09:22.200 I sometimes come away after this discussion thinking, 09:22.201 --> 09:23.871 "Why am I wasting our time? 09:23.870 --> 09:27.250 Nobody really believes this, that we all die alone." 09:27.250 --> 09:31.220 Last year I was virtually ready to drop it and then, 09:31.224 --> 09:33.874 I kid you not, that very afternoon, 09:33.873 --> 09:35.903 I came across a quote. 09:35.899 --> 09:37.089 I'll share this with you in a second. 09:37.090 --> 09:39.420 Somebody saying, "Oh, we all die alone." 09:39.419 --> 09:42.539 And then I think it was two days later, a week later, 09:42.535 --> 09:45.285 I came across another quote of somebody saying, 09:45.292 --> 09:46.912 "Oh, we all die alone." 09:46.909 --> 09:49.569 It made me think, "Oh, I guess this is a common 09:49.569 --> 09:52.949 enough thought." So here are the two quotes. 09:52.950 --> 09:55.280 But I think once you start looking for them, 09:55.284 --> 09:56.754 you find them everyplace. 09:56.750 --> 10:02.100 This first one is from the folk singer Loudon Wainwright III, 10:02.102 --> 10:05.762 from his song Last Man on Earth. 10:05.759 --> 10:11.109 "We learn to live together and then we die alone." 10:11.110 --> 10:12.960 We die alone. Interesting claim. 10:12.960 --> 10:16.110 It seems to say something important about the nature of 10:16.112 --> 10:18.732 death. Here's another quote. 10:18.730 --> 10:22.150 This is from the children's book, Eldest by 10:22.152 --> 10:25.092 Christopher Paolini, the sequel, of course, 10:25.085 --> 10:27.595 to the bestseller Eragon. 10:27.600 --> 10:30.760 "‘How terrible,' said Eragon, ‘to die alone, 10:30.764 --> 10:34.404 separate, even from the one who is closest to you.'" 10:34.399 --> 10:37.809 The answer given to Eragon, "Everyone dies alone, 10:37.811 --> 10:41.861 Eragon, whether you are a king on a battlefield or a lowly 10:41.863 --> 10:44.923 peasant lying in bed among your family, 10:44.919 --> 10:50.029 no one can accompany you into the void…" Everyone dies 10:50.027 --> 10:52.777 alone. As I say, this is a common 10:52.776 --> 10:54.976 enough view. Two quotes. 10:54.980 --> 10:56.700 I could certainly produce others. 10:56.700 --> 10:59.000 Everyone dies alone. 10:59.000 --> 11:02.610 The trick--The question we're going to ask is, 11:02.612 --> 11:07.432 can we find some interpretation of that claim under which, 11:07.429 --> 11:12.359 first of all it ends up being true, secondly, 11:12.359 --> 11:17.849 it ends up being a necessary truth about death? 11:17.850 --> 11:22.320 Suppose everyone happens to die on Monday, due to some cosmic 11:22.317 --> 11:24.427 coincidence. It might be sort of 11:24.431 --> 11:27.821 interesting, but it wouldn't tell us something deep about the 11:27.816 --> 11:30.406 nature of death, if people could just as easily 11:30.411 --> 11:33.251 die on Tuesday. If it happened to be that 11:33.246 --> 11:36.796 everybody dies in a room by themselves, that would be 11:36.796 --> 11:39.326 interesting. We might wonder what causes it. 11:39.330 --> 11:42.500 But it wouldn't be some deep insight into the nature of 11:42.500 --> 11:44.600 death. We're going to get a deep 11:44.604 --> 11:47.554 insight if it's a necessary truth about 11:47.546 --> 11:49.766 death that everyone dies alone. 11:49.770 --> 11:51.010 So it's got to be true. 11:51.009 --> 11:53.049 It's got to be a necessary truth. 11:53.049 --> 11:56.729 And, of course, it's got to be an interesting 11:56.730 --> 11:59.580 claim. If, when we interpret the claim 11:59.579 --> 12:03.519 "everyone dies alone," that just ends up being a slightly 12:03.516 --> 12:06.536 pretentious way of saying everyone dies, 12:06.539 --> 12:09.559 we might say, oh yeah, that is true and it is 12:09.562 --> 12:12.382 a necessary truth, but it's not especially 12:12.379 --> 12:14.889 surprising. It's not some deep surprising 12:14.892 --> 12:16.632 insight into the nature of death. 12:16.630 --> 12:18.530 We all knew everyone dies. 12:18.529 --> 12:21.639 You take that familiar fact and you wrap it up in the language 12:21.644 --> 12:22.874 "everyone dies alone." 12:22.870 --> 12:26.500 If that's all you're saying, you're not saying anything 12:26.499 --> 12:28.529 interesting. When people say, 12:28.531 --> 12:32.151 "You know, everyone dies alone," you're supposed to be 12:32.146 --> 12:35.826 gaining some deep insight into the nature of death. 12:35.830 --> 12:41.900 Finally, "everyone dies alone" is supposed to say something 12:41.903 --> 12:44.943 special about death. 12:44.940 --> 12:48.070 It better not be that everyone does everything alone, 12:48.065 --> 12:50.865 because--in whatever the relevant sense of alone turns 12:50.873 --> 12:53.843 out to be--if everyone does everything alone, 12:53.840 --> 12:55.010 then of course that might be interesting. 12:55.009 --> 12:58.019 It might be very important and insightful, but you're not 12:58.015 --> 13:01.125 saying anything especially interesting about death when you 13:01.127 --> 13:05.047 say everyone dies alone, if it's also true that everyone 13:05.048 --> 13:06.918 eats their lunch alone. 13:06.919 --> 13:09.819 So, all this is, is just, as we begin to ask 13:09.817 --> 13:13.387 ourselves, what could it possible mean when people say 13:13.388 --> 13:15.138 "everyone dies alone"? 13:15.139 --> 13:19.329 we're looking for something that's true, necessary, 13:19.327 --> 13:22.587 interesting and, if not unique to death, 13:22.594 --> 13:25.614 at least not true of everything. 13:25.610 --> 13:27.950 I put these conditions down because, of course, 13:27.948 --> 13:30.798 what I want to suggest is although the sentence "everyone 13:30.796 --> 13:33.436 dies alone," the claim that everyone dies 13:33.435 --> 13:36.495 alone, is one of these things that people say, 13:36.500 --> 13:40.160 they're not really thinking very hard about what they mean 13:40.156 --> 13:43.076 by it. Because once you actually push 13:43.077 --> 13:47.087 people, to pin them down, what do you mean by it, 13:47.090 --> 13:49.670 you end up with something that's either just not true, 13:49.670 --> 13:51.570 or not interesting, or not necessary, 13:51.570 --> 13:53.840 or not particularly unique to death. 13:53.840 --> 13:56.510 Take a possible interpretation. 13:56.509 --> 13:59.449 The most natural, straightforward, 13:59.452 --> 14:02.842 literal, flat-footed interpretation. 14:02.840 --> 14:09.490 To say that somebody does something alone means they do it 14:09.494 --> 14:13.234 not in the presence of others. 14:13.230 --> 14:16.670 Somebody who lives by himself goes to sleep. 14:16.669 --> 14:20.949 If there's nobody else in the bedroom, he's sleeping alone. 14:20.950 --> 14:23.640 On that straightforward interpretation, 14:23.644 --> 14:27.764 to say that everybody dies alone, what we're saying is that 14:27.756 --> 14:31.796 it's true of each one of us that he or she dies not in the 14:31.797 --> 14:33.567 presence of others. 14:33.570 --> 14:36.770 If that was true, it would be sort of surprising, 14:36.767 --> 14:38.437 striking. We might wonder whether it's a 14:38.438 --> 14:40.408 necessary truth. But at least there'd be 14:40.407 --> 14:42.217 something interesting there. 14:42.220 --> 14:44.150 But of course, it's not true. 14:44.149 --> 14:48.379 We all know full well that sometimes people die in the 14:48.382 --> 14:50.062 presence of others. 14:50.059 --> 14:53.349 We read earlier this semester Plato's Phaedo, 14:53.346 --> 14:56.306 which describes the death scene of Socrates. 14:56.309 --> 15:01.849 Socrates drinks the hemlock and dies in the presence of his 15:01.848 --> 15:04.138 friends and disciples. 15:04.140 --> 15:06.980 Socrates does not die alone. 15:06.980 --> 15:09.260 And of course, we know that there are many, 15:09.255 --> 15:12.175 many other cases in which people die in the presence of 15:12.181 --> 15:14.241 their friends, family, loved ones. 15:14.240 --> 15:18.110 It's just not true, given that interpretation, 15:18.106 --> 15:20.336 to say we all die alone. 15:20.340 --> 15:24.500 So if that's what the claim means, it's false. 15:24.500 --> 15:30.100 Our challenge is to find some other interpretation of the 15:30.100 --> 15:32.550 claim. All right, second possibility. 15:32.549 --> 15:36.599 When people say "everyone dies alone," they don't mean to be 15:36.600 --> 15:39.410 saying you die, but not in the presence of 15:39.414 --> 15:42.924 others. They mean to be saying rather, 15:42.915 --> 15:48.405 even if there are others around you, even if there are others 15:48.405 --> 15:53.525 with you, dying is something that you're doing alone. 15:53.530 --> 15:54.430 They aren't dying. 15:54.429 --> 15:57.799 Socrates' friends and disciples are not dying. 15:57.800 --> 15:59.890 He's the only one dying. 15:59.889 --> 16:03.169 And so everyone dies alone in that sense. 16:03.169 --> 16:06.109 Well, that's an interesting claim, if it's true, 16:06.109 --> 16:07.359 but it's not true. 16:07.360 --> 16:11.860 We could certainly have battlefields in which many 16:11.855 --> 16:15.245 people are dying along with others. 16:15.250 --> 16:17.750 There is Jones dying, but he's not dying alone. 16:17.750 --> 16:23.600 There's Smith dying at the same time right next to him. 16:23.600 --> 16:27.440 If that's what people mean when they say "everyone dies alone," 16:27.440 --> 16:29.670 then that's clearly false as well. 16:29.669 --> 16:32.069 I presume that's not what people meant either. 16:32.070 --> 16:34.940 But then what was it that they did mean? 16:34.940 --> 16:36.170 Well, we could do better. 16:36.169 --> 16:40.499 We could say, look, when Socrates dies, 16:40.501 --> 16:47.571 he's dying alone in the sense that he's doing it by himself. 16:47.570 --> 16:50.670 He's not doing it in cooperation with anybody else, 16:50.674 --> 16:52.914 in coordination with anybody else. 16:52.909 --> 16:56.889 On the battlefield, even if Smith and Jones are 16:56.885 --> 17:01.895 both dying, it's not like this is some sort of cooperative, 17:01.898 --> 17:03.798 joint undertaking. 17:03.799 --> 17:06.359 You could be walking down the sidewalk and Linda could be 17:06.356 --> 17:09.096 walking down the sidewalk and even though you're both walking 17:09.095 --> 17:12.165 down the sidewalk, you're not walking down the 17:12.168 --> 17:14.158 sidewalk together. 17:14.160 --> 17:17.750 In contrast, you can walk down the sidewalk 17:17.751 --> 17:20.601 with somebody. Say, "Hey, let's go to the 17:20.600 --> 17:23.350 library." And you walk down the sidewalk 17:23.352 --> 17:27.052 together. Walking is something you can do 17:27.051 --> 17:32.521 with others, in the sense that it can be a joint activity, 17:32.515 --> 17:34.715 a joint undertaking. 17:34.720 --> 17:39.180 Perhaps the claim then is that dying is not something that can 17:39.179 --> 17:42.469 be done in that way as a joint undertaking. 17:42.470 --> 17:45.330 Even if you're in a room or a battlefield where people are 17:45.332 --> 17:49.432 dying at the same time as you, to your left and your right, 17:49.433 --> 17:53.973 dying is not and cannot be something that is a joint 17:53.974 --> 17:56.704 undertaking. Well, that might be a proposal 17:56.701 --> 17:59.531 about what people mean when they say "everybody dies alone." 17:59.529 --> 18:02.659 And if it is, all I can say is, 18:02.663 --> 18:06.323 again, it just seems to be false. 18:06.319 --> 18:11.999 Now admittedly, dying as a joint undertaking is 18:11.999 --> 18:15.579 far rarer than dying alone. 18:15.579 --> 18:17.969 But for all that, we were looking for some deep 18:17.965 --> 18:19.775 insight into the nature of death. 18:19.780 --> 18:21.300 Everyone dies alone. 18:21.300 --> 18:23.590 Everyone must die alone. 18:23.589 --> 18:28.569 That's only going to be true if dying as a joint undertaking is 18:28.574 --> 18:32.044 impossible. But it's not impossible. 18:32.039 --> 18:35.349 You could have, for example, 18:35.348 --> 18:38.778 some sort of suicide pact. 18:38.779 --> 18:42.949 There have been cases, gruesome as they may be, 18:42.949 --> 18:48.019 in which entire groups of people drink poison together so 18:48.024 --> 18:51.934 as to die not alone, but die together, 18:51.933 --> 18:56.833 die as part of jointly dying, dying as a group. 18:56.829 --> 19:01.239 Or you could have, once told that this sort of 19:01.240 --> 19:05.460 thing happens, a couple in love who together 19:05.455 --> 19:10.895 jump off the cliff, committing suicide together, 19:10.900 --> 19:16.940 dying not alone but with each other as part of a joint 19:16.940 --> 19:19.920 undertaking. It certainly seems possible. 19:19.920 --> 19:23.720 I take it cases like this actually do occur. 19:23.720 --> 19:25.840 So if somebody comes along and says "No, no, 19:25.842 --> 19:28.262 everybody dies alone, and dying as part of a joint 19:28.260 --> 19:31.990 undertaking is impossible," they're just saying something 19:31.989 --> 19:34.879 false. These joint undertakings are 19:34.881 --> 19:39.521 like, well, you might think of them analogous to playing 19:39.520 --> 19:42.810 chamber music with a string quartet. 19:42.809 --> 19:45.689 It's something you're doing with others. 19:45.690 --> 19:48.160 It's not just a coincidence that they're doing it at the 19:48.160 --> 19:50.180 same time. All these people happen to be 19:50.176 --> 19:52.716 playing the violin, viola, or what have you next to 19:52.723 --> 19:55.093 you. No, no, we deliberately 19:55.093 --> 20:00.173 coordinated with one another so as to together produce this 20:00.172 --> 20:02.982 music. It seems possible in the case 20:02.978 --> 20:04.368 of string quartets. 20:04.369 --> 20:10.799 It seems possible in the case of joint suicide pacts as well. 20:10.799 --> 20:13.929 Well, a fan of the claim that we all die alone might come back 20:13.928 --> 20:18.348 and say, "Well, in the case of the string 20:18.353 --> 20:26.743 quartet, although it's true that I am playing with others, 20:26.740 --> 20:30.430 somebody could take my part. 20:30.430 --> 20:34.950 Somebody else could play the second violin part for me. 20:34.950 --> 20:40.030 Whereas, in contrast, when I die, even if I'm dying 20:40.033 --> 20:44.103 with others, nobody can take my part." 20:44.099 --> 20:47.839 So perhaps that's what the claim is meant to be when people 20:47.837 --> 20:49.767 say, "everybody dies alone." 20:49.769 --> 20:55.509 Nobody can die your death for you. 20:55.510 --> 20:58.980 Nobody can take your part. 20:58.980 --> 21:03.220 Now if that's what they mean, then--a small observation--they 21:03.221 --> 21:06.121 didn't express themselves very clearly. 21:06.119 --> 21:09.959 It seems to me rather a long distance from the thought, 21:09.964 --> 21:13.594 "nobody can die for me, nobody can take my part," to 21:13.594 --> 21:16.304 the claim, "everybody dies alone." 21:16.299 --> 21:19.189 That seems a rather misleading, unhelpful, way of making your 21:19.194 --> 21:21.564 point. But let's just bracket that 21:21.555 --> 21:25.225 complaint. It is true that nobody can take 21:25.227 --> 21:27.827 my part? Certainly people can take my 21:27.825 --> 21:29.585 part in the string quartet. 21:29.589 --> 21:33.839 Is it true that nobody can take my part in terms of my death? 21:33.840 --> 21:37.360 Not so clear it is true. 21:37.359 --> 21:40.279 I don't know how many of you have read Tale of Two 21:40.279 --> 21:43.389 Cities. If not, I'm about to spoil the 21:43.389 --> 21:47.809 plot for you. Here's at least a strand of the 21:47.812 --> 21:50.832 story. The hero of the story is in 21:50.831 --> 21:55.711 love with a woman who--alas and alack--does not love him. 21:55.710 --> 21:58.720 She loves another man. 21:58.720 --> 22:03.310 This other man--alas and alack--has been condemned to 22:03.312 --> 22:06.582 death during the French Revolution. 22:06.579 --> 22:11.279 Now as it happens--this is a novel--as it happens, 22:11.277 --> 22:15.397 our hero looks rather like the other man. 22:15.400 --> 22:21.060 And so as the other man is being carted off to the 22:21.056 --> 22:27.056 guillotine to be killed, our hero takes his place. 22:27.059 --> 22:31.699 Hence, the famous speech, "Tis a far, far better thing I 22:31.698 --> 22:35.278 do today." Our hero sacrifices himself so 22:35.278 --> 22:40.158 that the woman he loves can have the man that she loves. 22:40.160 --> 22:42.950 Well, for our purposes, the romance isn't crucial. 22:42.950 --> 22:46.610 For our purposes, the crucial point is to see 22:46.612 --> 22:51.692 that what seems to be going on there is our hero is taking the 22:51.690 --> 22:55.520 place of somebody else who's about to die. 22:55.519 --> 23:00.809 Just like somebody could take my place in the string quartet, 23:00.807 --> 23:06.357 it seems that somebody could take my place at the guillotine. 23:06.359 --> 23:10.339 In the American Civil War, there was a draft, 23:10.343 --> 23:15.143 but you could avoid it by hiring somebody to take your 23:15.141 --> 23:18.311 place, if you were rich enough. 23:18.309 --> 23:21.289 Well, you're in some battle, or rather, your troop is in 23:21.293 --> 23:24.443 some battle, and people are being killed left and right. 23:24.440 --> 23:26.890 Well, I suppose it doesn't strike me as an implausible 23:26.890 --> 23:29.710 thing to say that if everybody in the troop got killed and you 23:29.710 --> 23:31.930 would have gotten killed had you been there, 23:31.930 --> 23:34.290 but instead, the person you hired to take 23:34.294 --> 23:37.254 your place gets killed, then he took your place. 23:37.250 --> 23:40.960 He substituted for you in the death. 23:40.960 --> 23:44.710 So again, we don't have any clear, true interpretation of 23:44.705 --> 23:48.645 the claim that nobody can take my place, even with regard to 23:48.651 --> 23:51.611 dying. Well, easy to imagine the fan 23:51.609 --> 23:55.319 of this view coming back yet again and saying, 23:55.319 --> 23:59.899 "Although it's true that our hero takes the place of the 23:59.901 --> 24:04.771 other man on the guillotine, what ends up happening, 24:04.774 --> 24:09.734 of course, is that our hero dies his own death. 24:09.730 --> 24:15.570 He doesn't take over the death of the other man. 24:15.569 --> 24:19.649 The death of the other man doesn't take place until 20,30, 24:19.647 --> 24:22.077 40, whatever it is, years later. 24:22.079 --> 24:28.249 Nobody can take my place at my death. 24:28.250 --> 24:31.570 Because, of course, if they take my place, 24:31.565 --> 24:35.035 they end up living or going through, rather, 24:35.042 --> 24:38.522 their death not my death. 24:38.519 --> 24:44.759 My death is something that only I can undergo. 24:44.759 --> 24:48.919 Now again, that's an interesting claim if it's true. 24:48.920 --> 24:51.490 At least it seems to be an interesting claim. 24:51.490 --> 24:53.720 It seems to say something interesting about death. 24:53.720 --> 24:57.770 Again, I want to just notice that it's a rather odd thing to 24:57.765 --> 25:02.285 try to express that point in the language "everyone dies alone." 25:02.290 --> 25:03.960 But just bracket that. 25:03.960 --> 25:07.090 Have we at least found something interesting, 25:07.092 --> 25:11.582 necessary, unique to death when we say, "Nobody can die my death 25:11.576 --> 25:14.966 for me. I am the only one who can 25:14.973 --> 25:16.963 undergo my death"? 25:16.960 --> 25:22.250 Each of us must undergo his own death and nobody else's death. 25:22.250 --> 25:26.340 Nobody else can undergo their death for them, 25:26.341 --> 25:29.411 somebody else's death for them. 25:29.410 --> 25:34.920 Well, that does seem to be true and it seems to be a necessary 25:34.917 --> 25:37.707 truth. But we're not quite done. 25:37.710 --> 25:42.350 Is it saying something deep and interesting about the nature of 25:42.351 --> 25:45.021 death? Is it something that's fairly 25:45.018 --> 25:47.228 unique to the nature of death? 25:47.230 --> 25:51.720 That nobody can die my death for me. 25:51.720 --> 25:54.850 Actually, I don't think it is. 25:54.849 --> 26:00.009 Consider getting your hair cut at the barber. 26:00.009 --> 26:03.719 Now of course, somebody else can take your 26:03.717 --> 26:05.367 slot. All right, there's somebody who 26:05.365 --> 26:07.065 comes along and says, "Oh, I need to get to a date. 26:07.070 --> 26:08.260 I'm going to be late. 26:08.259 --> 26:10.369 Would you mind my having your appointment, using your 26:10.371 --> 26:12.081 appointment?" "Oh, I'm willing to wait. 26:12.080 --> 26:13.420 It's okay," right? 26:13.420 --> 26:17.030 So you might say, in some loose sense they've 26:17.033 --> 26:18.843 gotten your haircut. 26:18.839 --> 26:20.529 But of course, as it ended up, 26:20.529 --> 26:23.149 they didn't really get your haircut. 26:23.150 --> 26:26.810 They got their haircut. 26:26.810 --> 26:28.800 Think about haircuts. 26:28.799 --> 26:33.829 Nobody can get my haircut for me. 26:33.829 --> 26:39.429 I'm the only one who can get my haircut. 26:39.430 --> 26:44.480 If somebody else tries to get my haircut, they just end up 26:44.479 --> 26:47.579 getting their own haircut. 26:47.579 --> 26:50.599 Of course, it's not just special about haircuts. 26:50.599 --> 26:56.419 Talk about getting your kidney stones removed. 26:56.420 --> 26:59.970 Nobody else can get my kidney stones removed for me. 26:59.970 --> 27:04.560 I'm the only one who can get my kidney stones removed for me. 27:04.560 --> 27:05.640 Think about eating lunch. 27:05.640 --> 27:08.520 Nobody can eat my lunch for me. 27:08.519 --> 27:10.949 If somebody else tries to eat my lunch, they end up--it 27:10.946 --> 27:12.246 becomes their lunch. 27:12.250 --> 27:14.240 They've eaten their lunch for themselves. 27:14.240 --> 27:18.780 Nobody can eat my lunch for me except for me. 27:18.779 --> 27:22.099 If you think about it, it's true about just about 27:22.100 --> 27:24.500 everything. Maybe indeed everything. 27:24.500 --> 27:31.270 If you emphasize the word "my" enough, nobody can do much of 27:31.265 --> 27:38.485 anything for me and still have it be my such and such. 27:38.490 --> 27:43.720 In short, even though it's true that nobody can die my death for 27:43.722 --> 27:48.542 me, this isn't some deep insight into the special nature of 27:48.539 --> 27:52.019 death. It's just a trivial grammatical 27:52.024 --> 27:55.624 point about the meaning of the word "my." 27:55.620 --> 28:00.090 28:00.089 --> 28:02.199 All right, remember where we're at. 28:02.200 --> 28:06.540 We're looking for interpretations of the claim 28:06.543 --> 28:08.863 "everyone dies alone." 28:08.859 --> 28:13.829 And by now we've gone rather far afield in the search for an 28:13.829 --> 28:16.439 interpretation of that claim. 28:16.440 --> 28:20.560 But we have not yet been able to find a claim, 28:20.563 --> 28:23.773 an interpretation, which is true, 28:23.769 --> 28:27.189 interesting, fairly special about death, 28:27.190 --> 28:31.400 as opposed to trivially true about everything, 28:31.400 --> 28:35.910 and giving us some relatively interesting insight into the 28:35.906 --> 28:40.596 nature of death. I can't see it for the claim 28:40.596 --> 28:43.276 "everyone dies alone." 28:43.279 --> 28:48.499 At least not if we try to take these claims fairly literally or 28:48.500 --> 28:53.050 take them to be metaphysical claims about the nature of 28:53.047 --> 28:55.607 death. But maybe I've just been 28:55.614 --> 29:00.214 flatfooted here in thinking that this is some sort of claim about 29:00.214 --> 29:03.884 not being with others, or things I do by myself. 29:03.880 --> 29:09.710 Maybe the claim "we all die alone" is intended as a kind of 29:09.705 --> 29:13.575 metaphor. It's not that we all really do 29:13.575 --> 29:16.605 die alone. It's that when we die, 29:16.614 --> 29:20.024 it's as though we were alone. 29:20.020 --> 29:22.870 It's like being alone. 29:22.869 --> 29:29.259 Maybe the claim "we all die alone" is a psychological claim, 29:29.260 --> 29:36.090 that the psychological state we are in when we die is similar to 29:36.085 --> 29:40.855 loneliness. It's similar to the feeling of 29:40.856 --> 29:45.886 being alone that we have in various situations. 29:45.890 --> 29:49.890 29:49.890 --> 29:53.700 Now, that would be interesting if it was true. 29:53.700 --> 29:58.410 Is it true that when we die we all die having this feeling of 29:58.410 --> 30:02.100 loneliness, or perhaps feeling of alienation? 30:02.099 --> 30:07.759 It's easy enough to imagine somebody who is surrounded by 30:07.759 --> 30:10.689 other people as he's dying. 30:10.690 --> 30:14.760 And yet, for all that, feels removed, 30:14.763 --> 30:21.443 distant, alienated from the others, feels lonely even in the 30:21.438 --> 30:25.078 crowd. Is that true of all of us? 30:25.079 --> 30:27.199 Remember, we're looking for a claim that says, 30:27.202 --> 30:29.422 that makes it true, that everyone dies alone. 30:29.420 --> 30:37.240 Is it true that everyone dies feeling distant and removed? 30:37.240 --> 30:39.630 Maybe it was true of Ivan Ilyich. 30:39.630 --> 30:45.450 Ivan Ilyich progressively grows more and more distant from his 30:45.451 --> 30:50.031 family and friends who, indeed, remove themselves 30:50.032 --> 30:52.802 psychologically from him. 30:52.799 --> 30:58.789 He faces his death with a feeling of alienation and being 30:58.785 --> 31:00.705 alone. It's a metaphor, 31:00.712 --> 31:04.202 but still an important insight into his psychology. 31:04.200 --> 31:07.400 The question we have to ask is, "Is that true of everybody? 31:07.400 --> 31:12.410 Is it true that everybody dies alone in this psychological 31:12.409 --> 31:15.839 sense?" It doesn't seem to be 31:15.835 --> 31:17.375 true. First of all, 31:17.381 --> 31:21.761 notice the obvious point that sometimes people die in their 31:21.762 --> 31:23.502 sleep, unexpectedly. 31:23.500 --> 31:24.200 They weren't ill. 31:24.200 --> 31:26.750 They just die of cardiac arrest while they're sleeping. 31:26.750 --> 31:33.690 Such a person presumably is not feeling lonely or alienated 31:33.686 --> 31:36.866 while he dies. Well, you might say, 31:36.869 --> 31:40.429 "Okay, what we meant was anybody who's awake while 31:40.425 --> 31:42.325 they're dying, dies alone." 31:42.330 --> 31:43.640 That's not true either. 31:43.640 --> 31:46.970 You're crossing the street, talking to your friend, 31:46.973 --> 31:49.043 engaged in lively discussion. 31:49.039 --> 31:53.389 So lively, you don't notice the truck that's about to hit you. 31:53.390 --> 31:56.830 The truck hits you, you die, painlessly and 31:56.832 --> 31:59.732 immediately. Well, were you feeling 31:59.733 --> 32:03.643 alienated and distant during your final moments? 32:03.640 --> 32:05.970 No, it doesn't seem right either. 32:05.970 --> 32:10.420 So it certainly doesn't seem true to say that everybody dies 32:10.416 --> 32:14.406 feeling these psychological feelings of loneliness. 32:14.410 --> 32:16.850 Well, maybe what we should have to do is revise the claim yet 32:16.854 --> 32:19.194 again. Everybody who dies awake, 32:19.185 --> 32:23.755 realizing that they're dying, facing the fact that they're 32:23.758 --> 32:27.208 dying, they all, we all of whom that's 32:27.211 --> 32:31.621 true, we all die alone, as long as we realize we're 32:31.616 --> 32:33.246 dying. That would take care of the 32:33.254 --> 32:34.574 sleep case. That would take care of the 32:34.571 --> 32:37.151 truck case. Is the claim true then? 32:37.150 --> 32:39.130 It would still be interesting if it was true, 32:39.130 --> 32:40.570 even given those restrictions. 32:40.569 --> 32:44.309 But it doesn't seem true then either. 32:44.310 --> 32:46.530 Again, just recall Socrates. 32:46.529 --> 32:50.899 Socrates is engaged in philosophical discussion with 32:50.898 --> 32:54.238 his friends, knows he's about to die. 32:54.240 --> 32:55.510 He's drunk the hemlock. 32:55.509 --> 32:59.129 He's sitting there saying goodbye to everybody. 32:59.130 --> 33:02.860 He doesn't seem alienated. 33:02.859 --> 33:05.979 He doesn't seem to be feeling distant and alone. 33:05.980 --> 33:11.140 It just doesn't seem true that everybody who knows they're 33:11.135 --> 33:16.015 going to die and is facing their death feels lonely. 33:16.019 --> 33:18.529 Another example of this is another philosopher, 33:18.531 --> 33:21.261 David Hume, whom we'll be reading at the end of the 33:21.260 --> 33:23.230 semester. We'll be reading his essay on 33:23.229 --> 33:27.349 suicide. Hume died, had an illness. 33:27.349 --> 33:29.759 He was quite sociable to the end. 33:29.759 --> 33:32.739 He used to bring people in to sit around his deathbed talking 33:32.740 --> 33:34.380 about various matters with him. 33:34.380 --> 33:38.500 He was cheerful and pleasant to the end. 33:38.500 --> 33:40.860 And there's, as far as I can see, 33:40.855 --> 33:45.045 no reason at all to believe that he was feeling lonely, 33:45.049 --> 33:49.219 feeling distant, feeling alienated from the 33:49.223 --> 33:53.003 people who were keeping him company. 33:53.000 --> 33:57.830 So the psychological reading doesn't do any better, 33:57.833 --> 33:59.963 as far as I can see. 33:59.960 --> 34:02.760 Well, maybe there's some other interpretation, 34:02.763 --> 34:05.633 and I invite you to reflect on the question. 34:05.630 --> 34:08.980 Is it true that we all die alone? 34:08.980 --> 34:13.600 Is there some way of understanding that claim where 34:13.597 --> 34:18.087 it's true, a necessary truth, fairly special and unique, 34:18.087 --> 34:21.467 if not altogether unique, at least fairly special about 34:21.466 --> 34:24.376 death, showing us some deep insight 34:24.375 --> 34:29.315 into the nature of death--as opposed to some trivial insight 34:29.318 --> 34:34.678 about the way the possessive first person pronoun "my" works? 34:34.680 --> 34:39.050 I can't find it. So despite the fact that the 34:39.048 --> 34:44.118 claim "we all die alone" is one of these things that one hears, 34:44.117 --> 34:46.567 I think it's just nonsense. 34:46.570 --> 34:51.790 I think it's people talking without giving a moment's 34:51.785 --> 34:56.495 thought to what they meant when they said it. 34:56.500 --> 35:00.150 All right, where are we? 35:00.150 --> 35:05.070 For the first half of the course, we've been engaged in 35:05.066 --> 35:07.976 metaphysics, broadly speaking. 35:07.980 --> 35:13.600 We've been trying to get clear about the nature of the person, 35:13.597 --> 35:18.007 what we're composed of, so that we could then try to 35:18.014 --> 35:22.174 get clearer about the nature of survival and identity of 35:22.169 --> 35:25.299 persons, so that we could think about 35:25.300 --> 35:29.080 the nature of death, metaphysically speaking. 35:29.080 --> 35:33.750 What happens when we die? 35:33.750 --> 35:37.890 And as you know, I've defended the physicalist 35:37.886 --> 35:43.026 conception, according to which all we are are just bodies 35:43.034 --> 35:46.624 capable of doing some fancy tricks, 35:46.620 --> 35:50.080 capable of P-functioning. 35:50.079 --> 35:55.179 And details aside, death is a matter of the body 35:55.176 --> 36:00.486 breaking, so that it's no longer able to engage in 36:00.489 --> 36:03.199 P-functioning. 36:03.199 --> 36:07.679 As we saw, depending on the particular details of which 36:07.677 --> 36:12.317 theory of personal identity you accept--the body view, 36:12.320 --> 36:15.030 the brain view, the personality theory of 36:15.031 --> 36:19.371 personal identity--we might have to say slightly different things 36:19.369 --> 36:23.639 about whether the death of my body means I no longer exist, 36:23.639 --> 36:25.939 whether we should distinguish the death of the body, 36:25.944 --> 36:29.104 the death of the person, and so forth. 36:29.099 --> 36:32.919 But those details aside, roughly speaking, 36:32.922 --> 36:35.162 the following is true. 36:35.159 --> 36:41.819 When the body breaks, I cease to exist as a person. 36:41.820 --> 36:45.840 And even if we can hold out the logical possibility of my being 36:45.838 --> 36:49.858 resurrected--or my continuing to exist with a different body as 36:49.856 --> 36:54.116 long as it's got my personality, if you happen to accept the 36:54.117 --> 36:58.607 personality theory--even though there is the logical possibility 36:58.613 --> 37:02.043 of surviving my death or coming back to life, 37:02.039 --> 37:09.029 I see no good reason to believe that those logical possibilities 37:09.028 --> 37:12.688 are actual. As far as I can see, 37:12.686 --> 37:16.006 when my body dies, that's it. 37:16.010 --> 37:19.540 As a fan of the body view, I believe I'll still exist for 37:19.539 --> 37:21.739 a while. I'll exist as a corpse. 37:21.739 --> 37:24.759 But that's not the kind of thing about existence that 37:24.762 --> 37:27.622 mattered to me. In terms of what mattered to 37:27.617 --> 37:30.487 me, what I wanted was not just that I exist, 37:30.485 --> 37:33.475 but that I be alive, indeed be a person, 37:33.475 --> 37:37.915 indeed be a person with pretty much the same personality. 37:37.920 --> 37:40.430 And the truth of the matter is, when my body dies, 37:40.425 --> 37:41.495 that's all history. 37:41.500 --> 37:44.570 37:44.570 --> 37:47.580 That's where we're at in terms of the metaphysics. 37:47.580 --> 37:50.730 37:50.730 --> 37:55.100 We could summarize this by saying, when I die, 37:55.103 --> 37:56.953 I cease to exist. 37:56.949 --> 38:00.749 That's a little bit misleading, given the view I just sketched 38:00.748 --> 38:04.238 where even though I'm dead I still exist for a while as a 38:04.235 --> 38:07.345 corpse. But those issues won't concern 38:07.347 --> 38:10.177 us in what we're about to turn to. 38:10.179 --> 38:15.209 Let's just suppose that, for the sake of avoiding those 38:15.207 --> 38:18.647 complications, that when my body dies, 38:18.651 --> 38:20.701 it gets destroyed. 38:20.699 --> 38:24.289 And so the very same moment will be the end of my body, 38:24.291 --> 38:27.751 the end of my existence, the end of my personhood. 38:27.750 --> 38:29.780 Let's suppose that my personality doesn't get 38:29.779 --> 38:32.039 destroyed any sooner than the death of my body. 38:32.039 --> 38:33.779 We've got the end of my existence. 38:33.780 --> 38:35.430 Here I am going along. 38:35.429 --> 38:39.279 The atomizer comes along, blows me up. 38:39.280 --> 38:42.780 Then simultaneously, we've got the death of my 38:42.777 --> 38:47.357 person, the death of my body, the end of what matters to me, 38:47.363 --> 38:49.543 the end of my existence. 38:49.540 --> 38:51.670 Death is the end. 38:51.670 --> 38:55.790 And even though these things can come across--can come apart 38:55.793 --> 38:58.243 slightly under certain scenarios, 38:58.239 --> 39:02.889 those details won't matter for what we're about to turn to. 39:02.889 --> 39:05.379 Well, what are we about to turn to? 39:05.380 --> 39:07.710 We're about to turn to value theory. 39:07.710 --> 39:11.660 We spent the first half of the semester, you might say, 39:11.659 --> 39:15.389 trying to get clear about the metaphysical facts. 39:15.389 --> 39:20.299 And now that we've done that as best we can, we want to turn to 39:20.297 --> 39:22.907 the ethical or value questions. 39:22.910 --> 39:26.710 How good or bad is death? 39:26.710 --> 39:32.070 Why is--I take it, we all believe death is bad. 39:32.070 --> 39:34.010 Why is death bad? 39:34.010 --> 39:37.410 How can death be bad? 39:37.409 --> 39:40.939 So this is the big continental divide for the course. 39:40.940 --> 39:42.810 The first half of the class was metaphysics. 39:42.810 --> 39:46.870 Now we turn to value questions. 39:46.869 --> 39:52.529 And the first question we're going to be focusing on is just 39:52.531 --> 39:56.851 this, the question of the badness of death. 39:56.849 --> 40:00.249 How and in what ways is death bad? 40:00.250 --> 40:03.190 I take it, most of us do believe that death is bad. 40:03.190 --> 40:06.670 That's why we wish--maybe some of us believe, 40:06.667 --> 40:09.747 but at the very least the rest of us, 40:09.750 --> 40:14.510 many of us hoped--there were souls, so that death wouldn't 40:14.514 --> 40:16.274 have to be the end. 40:16.269 --> 40:19.999 If death is the end, that seems to be horrible. 40:20.000 --> 40:21.820 So we're going to turn to questions like this. 40:21.820 --> 40:26.490 How and in what ways is death bad? 40:26.489 --> 40:28.899 And then we're going to turn to the question, 40:28.898 --> 40:31.688 is it really true that immortality would be good? 40:31.690 --> 40:33.760 And eventually, we'll turn to some other value 40:33.756 --> 40:36.596 questions about if death really is the end, should we be afraid 40:36.603 --> 40:38.843 of death? I take it that fear of death is 40:38.839 --> 40:41.529 quite common. But we can actually evaluate 40:41.530 --> 40:45.500 different emotions and think about whether these emotional 40:45.501 --> 40:48.011 responses are appropriate or not, 40:48.010 --> 40:51.440 so we can ask whether or not fear of death is appropriate. 40:51.440 --> 40:56.320 We'll turn eventually to the question, how should we live in 40:56.317 --> 40:59.787 light of the fact that death is the end? 40:59.789 --> 41:02.499 And the last question we'll turn to is, could it ever make 41:02.495 --> 41:03.725 sense to kill ourselves? 41:03.730 --> 41:06.920 So these are the kind of moral or value questions we'll be 41:06.916 --> 41:09.316 concerned with until the end of the term. 41:09.320 --> 41:13.280 But the first one is simply, is death bad, 41:13.284 --> 41:19.184 as we typically take it to be, and, if so, what is it about it 41:19.182 --> 41:21.312 that makes it bad? 41:21.309 --> 41:24.939 So again, I'm going to suppose here on out that the 41:24.939 --> 41:28.859 metaphysical view that I've been sketching is right; 41:28.860 --> 41:30.390 that physicalism is true. 41:30.389 --> 41:36.159 The death of my body is the end of my existence as a person. 41:36.160 --> 41:43.710 Death is my end. Well, if that's right, 41:43.710 --> 41:48.000 how can it be bad for me to die? 41:48.000 --> 41:53.710 After all, once I'm dead, I don't exist. 41:53.710 --> 41:58.790 If I don't exist, how can it be bad for me that 41:58.794 --> 42:01.724 I'm dead? It's easy to see how you might 42:01.720 --> 42:04.740 think, how you might worry about the badness of death, 42:04.741 --> 42:07.821 if you thought you would survive your death. 42:07.820 --> 42:10.680 Now, if you believed in a soul, then you might worry about, 42:10.680 --> 42:13.590 well, gosh what's going to happen to my soul after I die? 42:13.590 --> 42:14.840 Am I going to make it up to heaven? 42:14.840 --> 42:16.190 Am I going to go to hell? 42:16.190 --> 42:20.530 You might worry about how badly off you're going to be once 42:20.531 --> 42:22.711 you're dead. The question makes perfect 42:22.706 --> 42:25.106 sense. But it's often seemed to people 42:25.114 --> 42:29.324 that if we really believe that death is the end--and that's the 42:29.322 --> 42:33.332 assumption that I'm making here on out--if we really believe 42:33.326 --> 42:37.686 death is the end, how can death be bad for me? 42:37.690 --> 42:42.760 How could anything be bad for me once I'm dead? 42:42.760 --> 42:44.870 If I don't exist, it can't be bad for me. 42:44.870 --> 42:48.630 42:48.630 --> 42:52.720 Well, sometimes in response to this thought, 42:52.715 --> 42:57.935 people respond by saying, "Look, death isn't bad for the 42:57.940 --> 43:00.030 person who's dead. 43:00.030 --> 43:04.560 Death is bad for the survivors." 43:04.560 --> 43:08.020 John's death isn't bad for John. 43:08.019 --> 43:13.009 John's death is bad for the people who loved John and now 43:13.012 --> 43:16.492 have to continue living without John. 43:16.489 --> 43:23.679 John's death is bad for John's friends and family. 43:23.679 --> 43:29.779 When somebody dies, we lose the chance to continue 43:29.783 --> 43:33.523 interacting with the person. 43:33.519 --> 43:38.949 We're no longer able to talk with them, spend time with them, 43:38.952 --> 43:41.942 watch a movie, look at the sunset, 43:41.940 --> 43:44.920 have a laugh. We're no longer able to tell 43:44.918 --> 43:47.228 our troubles with them and get their advice. 43:47.230 --> 43:50.890 We're no longer able to interact with them. 43:50.889 --> 43:55.999 All that's gone, when somebody dies. 43:56.000 --> 44:01.020 And the claim might be, that's the central bad of 44:01.022 --> 44:04.462 death. Not what it does for the person 44:04.460 --> 44:06.930 who dies. It's not bad for the person who 44:06.933 --> 44:09.473 dies. It's what it does for the rest 44:09.469 --> 44:11.319 of them, the rest of us. 44:11.320 --> 44:18.290 Now, I don't in any way want to belittle the importance of the 44:18.292 --> 44:25.382 pain and suffering that happen for the rest of us when somebody 44:25.379 --> 44:28.579 that we care about dies. 44:28.579 --> 44:34.149 Indeed, let me take a moment and read a poem that emphasizes 44:34.145 --> 44:38.105 this thought, because this is certainly one 44:38.106 --> 44:41.876 central, very bad thing about death. 44:41.880 --> 44:46.290 It robs us of our friends--we, the survivors--it robs us of 44:46.293 --> 44:48.503 our friends and loved ones. 44:48.500 --> 44:50.720 Poem. The poem is called 44:50.720 --> 44:55.050 Separation, by the German poet, Friedrich Gottlieb 44:55.045 --> 44:57.525 Klopstock. This is in one of the essays 44:57.531 --> 45:00.761 you'll be reading later in the semester by Walter Kaufmann--he 45:00.760 --> 45:02.930 quotes it--Death Without Dread. 45:02.929 --> 45:05.669 The poem, as I say, is Separation. 45:05.670 --> 45:09.040 You turned so serious when the corpse 45:09.040 --> 45:13.390 was carried past us; are you afraid of death? 45:13.390 --> 45:15.890 "Oh, not of that!" 45:15.890 --> 45:17.990 Of what are you afraid? 45:17.990 --> 45:23.040 "Of dying." I not even of that. 45:23.040 --> 45:25.490 "Then you're afraid of nothing?" 45:25.489 --> 45:29.949 Alas, I am afraid, afraid…"Heavens, 45:29.947 --> 45:33.977 of what?" Of parting from my friends. 45:33.980 --> 45:37.960 And not mine only, of their parting, 45:37.958 --> 45:40.288 too. That's why I turned more 45:40.287 --> 45:42.197 serious even than you did, 45:42.204 --> 45:44.794 deeper in the soul, when the corpse 45:44.789 --> 45:47.529 was carried past us [Kaufmann 1976] 45:47.530 --> 45:49.680 The poem is called Separation. 45:49.679 --> 45:54.319 According to Klopstock, the crucial badness of death is 45:54.319 --> 45:56.209 losing your friends. 45:56.210 --> 45:59.750 When they die, you lose them. 45:59.750 --> 46:03.140 And as I say, I don't in any way want to 46:03.144 --> 46:06.544 belittle the central badness of that. 46:06.539 --> 46:11.519 But I don't think it can be at the core in terms of what's bad 46:11.517 --> 46:14.837 about death. I don't think that can be the 46:14.843 --> 46:17.633 central fact about why death is bad. 46:17.630 --> 46:21.520 And to see this, let me tell you two stories. 46:21.520 --> 46:25.550 Compare them. Story number one. 46:25.550 --> 46:32.090 Your friend is about to go on the spaceship which is going to 46:32.086 --> 46:36.876 do the exploration of Jupiter or whatever. 46:36.880 --> 46:41.100 And they're going to be gone for years, years and years. 46:41.099 --> 46:47.179 It takes so long that by the time the spaceship comes back, 46:47.183 --> 46:50.333 100 years will have gone by. 46:50.330 --> 46:50.830 Maybe it's not Jupiter. 46:50.830 --> 46:53.550 It's farther away. 46:53.550 --> 46:57.440 Worse still, after about 20 minutes after 46:57.444 --> 47:02.214 the ship takes off, all radio contact between ship 47:02.214 --> 47:05.334 and earth will be destroyed. 47:05.329 --> 47:07.049 It won't be possible, because of the speed. 47:07.050 --> 47:08.040 It's not going to Jupiter. 47:08.039 --> 47:10.289 It's going to some other planetary system. 47:10.289 --> 47:14.099 So, all possibility of communication will be destroyed. 47:14.100 --> 47:15.560 Now, this is horrible. 47:15.559 --> 47:19.439 You're losing your closest friend. 47:19.440 --> 47:22.530 You will no longer be able to talk to them, 47:22.533 --> 47:26.293 share the moments, get their insights and advice. 47:26.289 --> 47:29.139 You'll no longer be able to tell them about the things that 47:29.138 --> 47:30.168 have been going on. 47:30.170 --> 47:34.630 It's the same kind of separation that Klopstock was 47:34.632 --> 47:38.722 talking about. Horrible, and it's sad. 47:38.720 --> 47:40.060 That was story number one. 47:40.059 --> 47:43.319 Story number two, just like story number one, 47:43.315 --> 47:47.305 the spaceship takes off, and about 15 minutes later, 47:47.309 --> 47:52.949 it explodes in a horrible accident and everybody on the 47:52.947 --> 47:57.747 spaceship, including your friend, is killed. 47:57.750 --> 48:03.170 Now, I take it that story number two is worse. 48:03.170 --> 48:07.380 Something worse has taken place. 48:07.380 --> 48:08.590 Well, what's the worse thing? 48:08.590 --> 48:12.920 We've got of course the very same separation we had in story 48:12.924 --> 48:14.874 number one. I can't communicate in the 48:14.866 --> 48:15.736 future with my friend. 48:15.740 --> 48:17.030 They can't communicate with me. 48:17.030 --> 48:20.280 But we had that already in story number one. 48:20.280 --> 48:23.900 If there's something worse about story number two, 48:23.900 --> 48:27.890 and I think it's pretty clear there is something worse, 48:27.890 --> 48:29.960 it's not the separation. 48:29.960 --> 48:36.570 It's something about the fact that your friend has died. 48:36.570 --> 48:39.200 Now of course, this is worse for me, 48:39.200 --> 48:43.410 as somebody who cares about my friend, that he's died. 48:43.409 --> 48:49.219 But the explanation of what's bad for me, in his having died, 48:49.223 --> 48:54.653 is the fact that it's bad for him to have died. 48:54.650 --> 48:59.130 And the badness for him isn't just a matter of separation, 48:59.130 --> 49:02.590 because that we already had in number one. 49:02.590 --> 49:03.760 We couldn't communicate with him. 49:03.760 --> 49:07.000 He couldn't communicate with us. 49:07.000 --> 49:11.640 If we want to get at the central badness of death, 49:11.644 --> 49:15.824 it seems to me, we can't focus on the badness 49:15.815 --> 49:20.455 of separation, the badness for the survivors. 49:20.460 --> 49:26.260 We have to think about how is it, how could it be true, 49:26.257 --> 49:31.837 that death is bad for the person that dies? 49:31.840 --> 49:37.060 That's the central badness of death and that's the one I'm 49:37.057 --> 49:39.617 going to have us focus on. 49:39.619 --> 49:47.169 How could it be true that death is bad for the person that dies? 49:47.170 --> 49:50.000 That's the question we turn to next time.