
Death and the Afterlife
Samuel Scheffler(Author)
Niko Kolodny(Editor)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 14. November 2013
Book
Hardback
222 pages
978-0-19-998250-9 (ISBN)
Description
We normally take it for granted that other people will live on after we ourselves have died. Even if we do not believe in a personal afterlife in which we survive our own deaths, we assume that there will be a "collective afterlife" in which humanity survives long after we are gone. Samuel Scheffler maintains that this assumption plays a surprising -- indeed astonishing -- role in our lives. In certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, then, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead value-laden lives: lives structured by wholehearted engagement in valued activities and pursuits. This conclusion complicates widespread assumptions about human egoism and individualism. And it has striking implications for the way we think about climate change, nuclear proliferation, and other urgent threats to humanity's survival.
Scheffler adds that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live.
Scheffler's position is discussed with insight and imagination by four distinguished commentators - Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf -- and Scheffler adds a final reply.
"This is some of the most interesting and best-written philosophy I have read in a long time. Scheffler's book is utterly original in its fundamental conception, brilliant in its analysis and argument, and concise and at times beautiful in its formulation." Stephen Darwall, Yale University
"[Scheffler's] discussion of the issues with which he has concerned himself is fresh and original. Moreover, so far as I am aware, those issues are themselves pretty much original with him. He seems really to have raised, within a rigorously philosophical context, some new questions. At least, so far as I know, no one before has attempted to deal with those questions so systematically. So it appears that he has effectively opened up a new and promising field of philosophical inquiry. Not bad going, in a discipline to which many of the very best minds have already devoted themselves for close to three thousand years." -Harry Frankfurt, Princeton University, from 'How the Afterlife Matters' (in this volume)"
"A truly wonderful and very important book." - Derek Parfit, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford
Scheffler adds that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live.
Scheffler's position is discussed with insight and imagination by four distinguished commentators - Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf -- and Scheffler adds a final reply.
"This is some of the most interesting and best-written philosophy I have read in a long time. Scheffler's book is utterly original in its fundamental conception, brilliant in its analysis and argument, and concise and at times beautiful in its formulation." Stephen Darwall, Yale University
"[Scheffler's] discussion of the issues with which he has concerned himself is fresh and original. Moreover, so far as I am aware, those issues are themselves pretty much original with him. He seems really to have raised, within a rigorously philosophical context, some new questions. At least, so far as I know, no one before has attempted to deal with those questions so systematically. So it appears that he has effectively opened up a new and promising field of philosophical inquiry. Not bad going, in a discipline to which many of the very best minds have already devoted themselves for close to three thousand years." -Harry Frankfurt, Princeton University, from 'How the Afterlife Matters' (in this volume)"
"A truly wonderful and very important book." - Derek Parfit, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford
Reviews / Votes
combined with Scheffler's eminently readable (and often humourous!) prose style, and the insightful and provocative exchanges that he has with his similarly-distinguished interlocutors, propels Death and the Afterlife into that rare class of philosophical books that are both valuable and enjoyable. * Analysis *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 209 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
335 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-998250-9 (9780199982509)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Samuel Scheffler | Niko Kolodny
Death and the Afterlife
Book
09/2016
Oxford University Press Inc
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Samuel Scheffler | Niko Kolodny
Death and the Afterlife
E-Book
09/2013
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
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Samuel Scheffler | Niko Kolodny
Death and the Afterlife
E-Book
09/2013
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
Available for download
Persons
Samuel Scheffler is University Professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University. He works primarily in the areas of moral and political philosophy and the theory of value. His books and articles have addressed central questions in ethical theory, and he has also written on topics as diverse as equality, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, toleration, terrorism, immigration, tradition, and the moral significance of personal relationships. He is the author of The Rejection of Consequentialism, Human Morality, Boundaries and Allegiances, and Equality and Tradition.
Content
List of Contributors ; Acknowledgments ; Samuel Scheffler ; Introduction ; Niko Kolodny ; Death and the Afterlife ; Samuel Scheffler ; Lecture One: The Afterlife (Part I) ; Lecture Two: The Afterlife (Part II) ; Lecture Three: Fear, Death, and Confidence ; Comments and Replies ; The Significance of Doomsday ; Susan Wolf ; How the Afterlife Matters ; Harry G. Frankfurt ; Preserving the Valued or Preserving Valuing? ; Seana Valentine Shiffrin ; That I Should Die and Others Live ; Niko Kolodny ; Death, Value, and the Afterlife: Responses ; Samuel Scheffler ; Index