Ethics is the Study of How to Live

Moral Questions Concerning Death

Death, not Dying.

1. Is it Bad to Die?

2. Are Some Deaths Worse than Others?

3. Might We Survive Death? Or is Death Annihilation?

• Ghosts as ancient Greeks thought

• A heaven

• a hell

• reincarnation

4. Would Immortality be a Good Thing?

5. How does Death affect the meaning of life?

1. Socrates' lesson; if we don't fear death we can better maintain our integrity and self-respect in the fact of threats to our life; more generally we can focus on living well, rather than just living.

2. Mortality lends meaning to life. It makes choices meaningful. Immortality would make our choices unimportant.

3. What is the effect on life of seeing it as merely a preliminary to immortality or as a test for whether we live well or badly in that afterlife?

4. What is the effect on life of seeing death as annihilation of oneself? Would death be something to fear? Would it be a bad thing?

5. 6. Is life sacred? What does this mean? Why would we think so? If life is sacred, then is all killing wrong?