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PHIL 176

Death

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2007

Topics

  • Course Introduction
  • The Nature of Persons: Dualism vs. Physicalism
  • Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part I
  • Introduction to Plato's Phaedo; Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part II
  • Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part III: Free Will and Near-Death Experiences
  • Arguments for the Existence of the Soul, Part IV; Plato, Part I
  • Plato, Part II: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul
  • Plato, Part III: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.)
  • Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul (cont.)
  • Personal Identity, Part I: Identity Across Space and Time and the Soul Theory
  • Personal Identity, Part II: The Body Theory and the Personality Theory
  • Personal Identity, Part III: Objections to the Personality Theory
  • Personal Identity, Part IV: What Matters?
  • What Matters (cont.); The Nature of Death, Part I
  • The Nature of Death (cont.); Believing You Will Die
  • Dying Alone; The Badness of Death, Part I
  • The Badness of Death, Part II: The Deprivation Account
  • The Badness of Death, Part III; Immortality, Part I
  • Immortality Part II; The Value of Life, Part I
  • The Value of Life, Part II; Other Bad Aspects of Death, Part I
  • Other Bad Aspects of Death, Part II
  • Fear of Death
  • How to Live Given the Certainty of Death
  • Suicide, Part I: The Rationality of Suicide
  • Suicide, Part II: Deciding under Uncertainty
  • Suicide, Part III: The Morality of Suicide and Course Conclusion

Readings

  • Plato, Phaedo John Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych
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  • Course Packet: Barnes, Julian. "The Dream." In History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters .
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  • Brandt, Richard. "The Morality and Rationality of Suicide." In Moral Problems . Edited by James Rachels. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • Hume, David. "On Suicide." In Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary .
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  • Kaufmann, Walter. "Death." In The Faith of a Heretic . New York: New American Library, 1959. pp. 353-376
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  • Kaufmann, Walter. "Death Without Dread." In Existentialism, Religion, and Death: Thirteen Essays . New York: New American Library, 1976. pp. 224-248
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  • 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
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  • Montaigne, Michel de. "That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die." In The Complete Essays .
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  • Nagel, Thomas. "Death." In Mortal Questions . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. pp. 1-10
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  • Rosenberg, Jay. "Life After Death: In Search of the Question." In Thinking Clearly About Death . Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1983. pp. 18-22
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  • Schick, Theodore and Lewis Vaughn. "Near-Death Experiences." In How to Think About Weird Things . New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. pp 307-323
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  • Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels , Part III, chapter 10.
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  • 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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Sources