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Can Death Be a Harm to the Person Who Dies?

  • Book
  • © 2002

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jack Li

    1. Fooyin Institute of Technology, Taiwan

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Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine (PHME, volume 73)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Jack Li
    Pages 1-10

  3. The Epicurean Argument

    • Jack Li
    Pages 11-31

  4. The Desire-thwarting Theory

    • Jack Li
    Pages 33-42

  5. The Deprivation Theory

    • Jack Li
    Pages 43-65

  6. The Interest-Impairment Theory

    • Jack Li
    Pages 67-97

  7. The Lucretian Symmetry Argument

    • Jack Li
    Pages 99-129

  8. Conclusion

    • Jack Li
    Pages 131-137

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 139-198
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Keywords

About this book

lt is with great pleasure that I write this preface for Or Li's book, wh ich addresses the venerable and vexing issues surrounding the problem of whether death can be a harm to the person who dies. This problem is an ancient one which was raised long ago by the early Greek philosopher Epicurus, who notoriously argued that death is at no time a harm to its 'victim' because before death there is no harrn and after death there is no victim. Epicurus's conclusion is conspicuously at odds with our prereflective­ and in most cases our post-reflective-intuitions, and numerous strategies have therefore been proposed to refute or avoid the Epicurean conclusion that death cannot be an evil after all. How then are we to account for our intuition that death is not just an evil, but perhaps the worst evil: that may befall us? This is the key issue that Or Li addresses. Or Li's book explores various alternative approaches to the complex and difficult issues surrounding Epicurus's notorious argument and provides a defence ofthe intuitively plausible conclusion that death can indeed be a harm to the person who dies. This challenge to Epicurus's claim that death is never a harm to the person who dies is developed by way of a detailed exploration of the issues raised not only by Epicurus, but also by his many successors, who have responded variously to the challenging issues which Epicurus raised.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fooyin Institute of Technology, Taiwan

    Jack Li

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Can Death Be a Harm to the Person Who Dies?

  • Authors: Jack Li

  • Series Title: Philosophy and Medicine

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9868-2

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2002

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-0505-3Published: 30 April 2002

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-5973-4Published: 06 December 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-015-9868-2Published: 14 March 2013

  • Series ISSN: 0376-7418

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-0080

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 198

  • Topics: Philosophy, general, Metaphysics, Ethics, Philosophy of Medicine, Classical Philosophy

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