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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Epicurus's symmetry argument establishes that the pre-natal and post-mortem states are relevantly identical: in neither does the person exist to be affected.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Pre-natal non-existence differs metaphysically from death: only death involves the termination of an existing person's life narrative.
      ?

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    • 2.Death can be bad comparatively (worse than continued life) even if not bad for the subject; pre-birth lacks this comparative harm.
      ?

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    • 3.We can rationally prefer longer lives to shorter ones without claiming death itself is experientially bad, avoiding Epicurus's problem.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Being harmed requires existing as a subject capable of experiencing negative states; pre-natal non-existence satisfies this criterion.
      ?

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    • 2.If death is bad, it must be bad for someone; but the dead person cannot experience badness, making death's badness metaphysically obscure.
      ?

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    • 3.Asymmetrical attitudes toward pre-birth and post-death (regretting one but not the other) lack rational justification on Epicurus's view.
      ?

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