Life and Death Metaphysics and Ethics, Volume XXIV [Paperback]

Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Volume XXIV, Life and Death: Metaphysics and Ethics is an important contribution to the literature on the intersection of issues of metaphysics and issues of ethics. In the Midwest Studies tradition, twenty of the more important philosophers writing in this area have contributed original papers that extend the boundaries of philosophical discussion of issues that are of both theoretical and practical concern to a wide-ranging audience. Topics considered include the concept of human life, the relationship between the concept of personal identity and the understanding of death, normative appraisals of death, capital punishment, euthanasia, the postponement of death and the impact of a theory of death and afterlife on one's ethical perspective.Metaphysics as Prolegomenon to Ethics (Joel Kupperman).

The Meaning of Life (John Kekes).

In Defense of a Common Ideal for a Human Life (E. M. Adams).

Can the Dead Really Be Buried? (Palle Yourgrau).

Later Death/Earlier Birth (Christopher Belshaw).

Death and the Psychological Conception of Personal Identity (John Martin Fischer and Daniel Speak).

Thick and Thin Selves: Reply to Fischer and Speak (Frederik Kaufman).

The Termination Thesis (Fred Feldman).

The Evil of Death Revisited (Harry S. Silverstein).

Death and Asymmetries in Normative Appraisals (Ishtiyaque Haji).

Appraising Death in Human Life: Two Modes of Valuation (Stephen E. Rosenbaum).

For Now Have I My Death’: The Duty to Die versus the Duty to Help the Ill Stay Alive (Felicia Ackerman).

Taking Life and the Argument from Potentiality (Roy W. Perrett).

Privatizing Death: Metaphysical Discouragement of Ethical Thinking (John Woods).

Justifications for Killinl“f