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    The strategy of thanatizing (limiting ourselves to desire... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The strategy of thanatizing (limiting ourselves to desires whose objects cannot be falsified by death) will backfire and fail to protect us from the harm of death.

    Afterlife & Death
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Epicurus's own framework reveals that desire-limitation strategies presuppose a subject who persists to benefit from tranquility, which death eliminates.
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    • 2.If tranquility's value requires a continuing experiencer, then thanatizing secures peace only for the living, leaving the deprivation of future goods unaddressed.
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    • 3.The harm of death on the deprivationist account (Nagel, Feldman) consists precisely in the absence of future goods, which no ante-mortem desire-revision can neutralize.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Parfit's notion of future-directed concern shows that our prudential interest in our future self cannot be dissolved merely by restructuring present desires.
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    • 2.A person who successfully thanatizes still retains a rational stake in their future well-being, since desire-revision does not sever personal identity across time.
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    • 3.Therefore the underlying vulnerability that makes death harmful—truncation of a biographical life (Nussbaum, MacIntyre)—persists regardless of which desires one currently holds.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Death can interfere with desire fulfillment not just by falsifying the objects of our desires but also by precluding our having desires.
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    • 2.Even if we resolve to limit ourselves to desires whose objects cannot be falsified by death, we are still vulnerable to the harm death will do us if it precludes our having and fulfilling desires.
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    • 3.Thanatizing would therefore force us to avoid having any desires whose fulfillment would have benefitted us.
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    Topics

    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    A person who successfully thanatizes still retains a rational stake in their fut...Death can interfere with desire fulfillment not just by falsifying the objects o...Epicurus's own framework reveals that desire-limitation strategies presuppose a ...Even if we resolve to limit ourselves to desires whose objects cannot be falsifi...
    +6 moreShow less
    If tranquility's value requires a continuing experiencer, then thanatizing secur...Parfit's notion of future-directed concern shows that our prudential interest in...Thanatizing would therefore force us to avoid having any desires whose fulfillme...The harm of death on the deprivationist account (Nagel, Feldman) consists precis...Therefore the underlying vulnerability that makes death harmful—truncation of a ...To deny ourselves such desires would be as bad for us as the harm we are trying ...

    Similar

    Even if we resolve to limit ourselves to desires whose objects cannot ...87%If we thanatize our desires, dying would not interfere with any of our...81%We might 'thanatize' our desires by abandoning all desires that death ...80%By altering our desires, we could cease to have any interests that dyi...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: death
    Luper 2013
    View source passageHide passage
    Unfortunately, this strategy will backfire. The main problem is that death can interfere with desire fulfillment not just by falsifying the objects of our desires but also by precluding our having desires (Luper 2013). So even if we resolve, from now on, to limit ourselves to desires whose objects cannot be falsified by death, we are still vulnerable to the harm death will do us if it precludes our having and fulfilling desires. Hence thanatizing would force us to avoid having any desires whose fulfillment would have benefitted us, and to deny ourselves such desires would be as bad for us as t...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The premises are faithfully extracted from the passage and collectively provide a rational attack on the strategy of thanatizing by showing it is self-defeating—the cost of avoiding desires equals the harm of death itself—which supports the conclusion that the strategy will backfire.

    Confidence: High confidence. The passage presents a clear argument against a specific strategy, with explicit premises and conclusion.

    Details

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