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Oxford University Press
September 2013
On Sale: September 5, 2013
224 pages ISBN: 0199982503 EAN: 9780199982509 Kindle: B00ESDM4HM Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Inspirational
Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your
life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants
would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what
extent would you remain committed to your current projects
and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for
cancer? Would couples still want children?
In
Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel
Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show
that the continued life of the human race after our
deaths--the "afterlife" of the title--matters to us to an
astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed,
Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the
future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters
more to us than our own continued existence and the
continued existence of those we love. Without the
expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things
that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the
prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our
confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the
terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the
prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far
greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted
engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we
are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality,
like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also
undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His
arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead
value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves
should die and that others should live.
Death
and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four
distinguished philosophers--Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny,
Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf--who discuss Scheffler's
ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final
reply.
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