When Death Comes Too Late: Radical Life Extension and the Makropulos Case



Hauskeller, Michael ORCID: 0000-0002-4452-4813
(2021) When Death Comes Too Late: Radical Life Extension and the Makropulos Case. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 90. pp. 147-166.

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Famously, Bernard Williams has argued that although death is an evil if it occurs when we still have something to live for, we have no good reason to desire that our lives be radically extended because any such life would at some point reach a stage when we become indifferent to the world and ourselves. This is supposed to be so bad for us that it would be better if we died before that happens. Most critics have rejected Williams’ arguments on the grounds that it is far from certain that we will run out of things to live for, and I don't contest these objections. Instead, I am trying to show that they do not affect the persuasiveness of Williams’ argument, which in my reading does not rely on the claim that we will inevitably run out of things to live for, but on the far less contentious claim that it is <jats:italic>not unthinkable</jats:italic> we will do so and the largely ignored claim that <jats:italic>if</jats:italic> that happens, we will have <jats:italic>died too late</jats:italic>.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 23 Aug 2021 08:16
Last Modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:34
DOI: 10.1017/s1358246121000278
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3134226