SELENA THÉMR. KYLE BURCHETT

PHI 380 001 DEATH, DYING, AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE

MONDAY JANUARY 27 , 2014

Death’s Distinctive HarmWritten By Stephan Blatti

Agenda

Introduction

Stephan Blatti Biography

Article Overview

Article Excerpts

Relatable Topics

Questions

Stephan Blatti Biography

Attended Ohio State University and the University of Oxford

Previously taught at the University of North Carolina and Duke University

Currently at the University of Memphis Department of Philosophy

Metaphysics Animalist theory of personal

identity, material constitution, and deathhttp://memphis.edu/philosophy/bios/blatti.php

Article Overview- The Harm Thesis

The Harm Thesis- death can harm the one who dies.

Two Challenges 1. Timing issue- If HT is

true, when is death’s harm exposed to oneself?

2. Harm issue- If HT is true, what is the nature of the harm brought about by death?

(Blatti, 317)http://www.bubblews.com/news/51610-death

The Harm Thesis The Epicurean

“Death can harm the one who dies.”

“The most awful of evils,” as Epicurus notoriously put it in his Letter to Menoeceus, “is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.”

(Blatti, 317)

Article Excerpts- The Harm Thesis vs. The Epicurean

Article Overview- The Timing Issue

The Timing Issue Eternalism Priorism Concurrentism Subsequentism Indefinitism

(Blatti, 317)

http://abhinarfatah.wordpress.com/lukisan/salvador-dali/

Article Overview- The Harm Issue

The Harm Issue “When bad, death’s

badness consists in depriving us of life’s goods.”

The Deprivation View

(Blatti, 317)https://life.babson.edu/organization/netimpact/calendar/details/

124177

Article Excerpt- The Deprivation View

“The discussion unfolds in three steps. In section 1 we consider the priorist answer to

the timing question, see how it works with DV, and entertain a couple of misgivings. Section 2 presents DV in greater detail, highlighting its advantages and drawing out the respects in

which it is incomplete. Section 3 offers a proposal for how to understand the aspect of

mortal harm (Restriction Harm) that DV overlooks. This account accords with priorism and avoids the objections raised in section 1.”

(Blatti, 318)

Article Overview- Priorism

The victim of deaths harm are not the dead, but the living.

One’s future death

may constitute an injury to one’s present self. Yankees vs. the Red

Sox Ferdinand Magellan

(Blatti, 318-319)

http://www.antarcticguide.com/about-antarctica/antarctic-history/early-explorers/3ferdinand-magellan/

Article Excerpt- Priorism

“S’s death at t2 constitutes a harm to S at t1 by depriving S at t1 of goods that S would have

enjoyed had she continued living. Put differently, if S’s death at t2 will render her

efforts at t1 ineffectual (by precluding completion of a significant project, for

instance), then S’s death at t2 harms S at t1 by making S at t1 comparatively worse off than

she would have been had she not attempted to complete her project in the first place.”

(Blatti, 319)

Article Overview- Deprivation Harm

Deprivation Harm- death deprives a person of possible goods that would come from a longer life

Deprivationist approach- some deaths are worse than others and death might not be overall bad for some of those who die Suicide Euthanasia Ceteris paribus

(Blatti, 321)

http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Movies/2013/12/16/Paul-

Walker-buried-after-private-funeral/UPI-85071387203974/

Article Excerpt- Deprivation Harm

“We can and should agree that there are circumstances in which suicide may be rational and euthanasia justified. But from the fact that some lives are not worth continuing, it does not

follow that the subjects of these lives go unharmed by their deaths—even when those

deaths are elective.”

(Blatti, 323)

Ceteris Paribus

http://www.doobybrain.com/2007/09/19/calvin-and-hobbes-on-the-topic-of-death/

Article Overview- Restriction Harm

Every exercise of a subject’s autonomy is possibly thwarted by her death.

The Termination Thesis

“An autonomous human being is necessarily restriction-harmed by her future death so long as she remains autonomous.”

(Blatti, 323-324)http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/most-mindblowing-

base-jumps/10917

Article Overview- Conclusion

“Death’s harm is not homogenous, but multifaceted; not entirely contingent, but partly necessary.”

“Each and every autonomous, living subject who dies is harmed because her every exercise of autonomy is possibly undermined by death.”

“Not only can death in fact harm the one who dies, it always does so—whether or not

the death is overall good for that individual.”

(Blatti, 326)

Relatable Topics

SlaverySuicideEuthanasia

Active Passive Physician Assisted

Ceteris ParibusDNRs

http://theromanticvineyard.com/2011/08/04/water-into-wine-proverbs-13/

http://stephen-coley.com/blog/?tag=calvin-hobbes

Works Cited

"The 5 Most Mindblowing BASE Jumps In History." The 5 Most Mindblowing BASE Jumps In History. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

Babson Net Impact. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. Blatti, Stephan. "Death's Distinctive Harm." American Philosophical

Quarterly 49.4 (2012): 317-30. Print. "Calvin & Hobbes | Stephen Coley." Stephen Coley. Web. 26 Jan.

2014. "Death." News. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. "Ferdinand Magellan." Antarctic Guide 03 Ferdinand Magellan

Comments. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. "JENDELA HISTORIOGRAFI.” Web. 26 Jan. 2014. "Paul Walker." UPI. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. "Philosophy Stephan Blatti University of Memphis." Stephan Blatti.

University of Memphis, Web. 26 Jan. 2014. "RIP Glory: Calvin and Hobbes on the Topic of Death."

Doobybrain.com. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. "Water Into Wine – Proverbs 13 | The Romantic Vineyard." The

Romantic Vineyard. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.