Death and Mortality in Contemporary Philosophy

This book provides a critical analysis of the philosophy of human death.

Bernard N. Schumacher (Author), Michael J. Miller (Translated by)

9780521171199, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 September 2010

270 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.4 cm, 0.38 kg

'I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the philosophical discussion of death or simply an interest in the meaning of his or her own death.' John P. Lizza, Mind

This book contributes to current bioethical debates by providing a critical analysis of the philosophy of human death. Bernard N. Schumacher discusses contemporary philosophical perspectives on death, creating a dialogue between phenomenology, existentialism and analytic philosophy. He also examines the ancient philosophies that have shaped our current ideas about death. His analysis focuses on three fundamental problems: (1) the definition of human death, (2) the knowledge of mortality and of human death as such, and (3) the question of whether death is 'nothing' to us or, on the contrary, whether it can be regarded as an absolute or relative evil. Drawing on scholarship published in four languages and from three distinct currents of thought, this volume represents a comprehensive and systematic study of the philosophy of death, one that provides a provocative basis for discussions of the bioethics of human mortality.

Part I. Human Personal Death: 1. Introduction
2. Biological death
3. So-called 'personal death'
4. The anthropological challenge of neocortical death
5. Ethics as the criterion for defining death
6. Diversity of definitions of death in a secular ethic
7. Conclusion
Part II. Theory of Knowledge about Death: 8. Scheler's intuitive knowledge of mortality
9. Heidegger's being-towards-death
10. Is mortality the object of foreknowledge?
11. Inductive knowledge of death and Jean-Paul Sartre
12. Knowledge of mortality is inseparable from the relation to the other
13. Death as the object of experience
Part III. Does Death Mean Nothing to Us?: 14. The 'nothingness of death': Epicurus and his followers
15. Discussion of experientialism and the need for a subject
16. Death: an evil of privation
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Sociology: death & dying [JHBZ], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]