The Metaphysics and Ethics of Death

The questions that surround death--Is death a harm to the person who dies? Should we be afraid of death? Can the dead be harmed? Can they be wronged?--have been of widespread interest since Classical times. This interest is currently enjoying a renaissance across a broad spectrum of philosophical fields, ranging from metaphysics to bioethics. This volume is the first to bring together original essays that both address the fundamental questions of the metaphysics of death and explore the relationship between those questions and some of the areas of applied ethics in which they play a central role. The essays in Part I of this volume examine some of the Classical approaches to fundamental metaphysical questions surrounding death, addressing in particular the question of whether a person's death can be a harm to her. The theme of the value of death is continued in Part II, with essays addressing this issue through a more contemporary lens. The essays in Part III address the related but separate issue of whether persons can be harmed by events that occur after they die. Finally, the essays in Part IV apply the metaphysical issues addressed in Parts I through III to various issues in bioethics, including the question of posthumous organ procurement, suicide, and survival after brain injury. Written by some of the most prominent philosophers working on these issues today, the essays in this volume showcase the state of the art of both the metaphysics of death and its importance to many areas of applied ethics.