POG 100 Chapter 5: Why is Death Bad By Martin Fischer _

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Politics and Public Administration
• Course: POG 100
• Professor: Patrice Dutil

Document Summary

Death from the standpoint of a terminally ill or pained person may be seen as a good thing . But, from a healthy human, death may be bad. If one believes in the afterlife, death may be bad due to torment but it may be good because he may experience bliss in the afterlife. Pain is bad and experienced by the person, but death isn"t experienced by the person. So death is analogous to a friend"s betrayal behind your back. Death = experiential blank deprivation of good things of life. Inappropriate to have asymmetrical attitudes towards prenatal nonexistence. Not being born at an earlier or different time may be seen as a deprivation of opportunity, as well. Response: although one is able to live longer, one is not able to be born much earlier. Parfit: we have a bias towards the future to the extent that we are indifferent toward our own past suffering, but not to our future suffering.