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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    It is irrational to object to death (assuming it ends our... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    It is irrational to object to death (assuming it ends our existence).

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.We do not find it objectionable that we failed to exist prior to being alive.
      ?

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    • 2.The way things were for us while not existing before birth is just like the way things will be for us after death ends our existence.
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    • 3.Our pre-vital nonexistence and our posthumous nonexistence are symmetrical, alike in all relevant respects, so any objection to the one would apply to the other.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Death deprives us of future goods we would have experienced, and deprivation of goods is a harm even when unfelt (Epicurus's error is conflating harm with felt suffering).
      ?

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    • 2.Pre-natal non-existence deprives us of no goods, since there was no determinate subject yet to receive earlier goods, whereas death cuts short an existing subject's future.
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    • 3.Because the subject of deprivation exists only in the forward direction, the asymmetry between prenatal and posthumous non-existence is ontologically grounded, not merely sentimental.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Rational attitudes toward events need not require that the subject experience those events for the attitudes to be warranted (Nagel's objective standpoint allows for agent-relative harms).
      ?

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    • 2.Death forecloses the narrative completion of a life, and the truncation of a biographical self carries evaluative weight independent of any moment of suffering.
      ?

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    • 3.An objection to death is therefore not irrational but tracks a genuine loss assessable from the perspective of the whole life, not merely from within it.
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    Topics

    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    An objection to death is therefore not irrational but tracks a genuine loss asse...Because the subject of deprivation exists only in the forward direction, the asy...Death deprives us of future goods we would have experienced, and deprivation of ...Death forecloses the narrative completion of a life, and the truncation of a bio...
    +5 moreShow less
    Our pre-vital nonexistence and our posthumous nonexistence are symmetrical, alik...Pre-natal non-existence deprives us of no goods, since there was no determinate ...Rational attitudes toward events need not require that the subject experience th...The way things were for us while not existing before birth is just like the way ...We do not find it objectionable that we failed to exist prior to being alive.

    Similar

    It is not irrational to prefer not to be at the end of our lives, unab...81%It is rational to deplore death more than we deplore our not having al...80%There is reason to think that a person's survival of death is logicall...77%The normality and inevitableness of death do not imply that it would n...76%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: death

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit