161-038 Morality, Mortality

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Two second/third year single-semester philosophy subjects or equivalent for third year. Admission to the Postgraduate Diploma or Fourth Year Honours in Philosophy for fourth year.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The subject examines a wide range of issues about death and saving life. It asks: what, if anything, is bad about death? Is death bad because it deprives us of future goods? Or bad because it frustrates present projects? Or both? It examines asymmetries between prenatal nonexistence and death. It asks whether we should regret the inevitable fact of our deaths or whether we should be glad that we are not immortal. It also asks what the difference between death and survival is. For example, if your body is destroyed on earth and a perfect copy of it is made on a colony on Mars, is this the same as ordinary survival or the same as ordinary death? It goes on to examine dilemmatic cases in which we have a choice over whom to save from a threat of death when we cannot save everyone. Is it better to save the greater number? Should each person be given an equal chance of survival? What significance do factors like age and responsibility for being before a threat of death have? Is quality of life relevant? What significance does giving priority to the worse off have in dilemmatic cases?

Assessment

Written work totalling 4000 words for third year, 5000 words for fourth year.

Prescribed Texts

• D Parfit, Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press, 1987.
• F Kamm, Morality, Mortality: Death and Whom to Save from It. Oxford University Press, 1993.