Department of Philosophy
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Death

Published: Spring 2007

Arts & Humanities

Description

There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?

Course Takeaways

  • How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?
Join the course
Available Now
Delivery

Open Yale Courses + YouTube

Duration
12 weeks (24 hours)
Fees
Free
Language
English
Subtitles
English
Credentials
Open Access

Meet the Instructors

faculty profile image "Shelly Kagan is Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale. After receiving his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1976, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1982, he taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois at Chicago before coming to Yale in 1995. He is the author of the textbook Normative Ethics, which systematically reviews alternative positions concerning the basic rules of morality and their possible foundations, The Limits of Morality, which challenges two of the most widely shared beliefs about the requirements of morality and The Geometry of Desert, which explores a number of less familiar questons around the concept that people should get what they deserve. He is currently at work on his next book, How to Count Animals, More or Less. Full Biography (opens in new window)

Course Materials

Textbook

Barnes, Julian. "The Dream." In History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters.

Brandt, Richard. "The Morality and Rationality of Suicide." In Moral Problems. Edited by James Rachels. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

Edwards, Paul. "Existentialism and Death: A Survey of Some Confusions and Absurdities." In Philosophy, Science and Method: Essays in Honor of Ernest Nagel. Edited by Sidney Morgenbesser, Patrick Suppes and Morton White. New York: St. Matrin's Press, 1969. pp. 473-505

Feldman, Fred. "The Enigma of Death." In Confrontations with the Reaper: A Philosophical Study of Nature and Value of Death. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. pp. 56-71

Hume, David. "On Suicide." In Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary.

Kaufmann, Walter. "Death." In The Faith of a Heretic. New York: New American Library, 1959. pp. 353-376

Kaufmann, Walter. "Death Without Dread." In Existentialism, Religion, and Death: Thirteen Essays. New York: New American Library, 1976. pp. 224-248

Martin, Robert. "The Identity of Animal and People." In There are Two Errors in the the Title of This Book: A Sourcebook of Philosophical Puzzles, Problems, and Paradoxes. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2002. pp. 223-226

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

Nagel, Thomas. "Death." In Mortal Questions. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. pp. 1-10

Rosenberg, Jay. "Life After Death: In Search of the Question." In Thinking Clearly About Death. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1983. pp. 18-22

Schick, Theodore and Lewis Vaughn. "Near-Death Experiences." In How to Think About Weird Things. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. pp 307-323

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

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