Final Studyguide

Question 1

How to formalize an argument in Premise/Conclusion format

Answer 1

P1 (Premise one) + P2 (premise 2) = C (claim)
If P1 is true and P2 is true then C must be true.

For example, all humans are mortal; socrates is a human therefore he is mortal.

Question 2

Body view

Answer 2

A person is their body and dies when their body stops functioning (otherwise known as loss of the B function according to kagan).

Question 3

Personality view

Answer 3

A person is their personality and dies when they can no longer perform p function, in other words if a person is brain dead then they are dead.

Question 4

Dualism

Answer 4

Comes from Descartes: A person has a material (body) and an immaterial body (personality) so when their mind stops working they are dead because all that is left is the vessel which held their personality that now no longer exists.

Question 5

2 suprising claims from chapter eight

Answer 5

1. Nobody actually believes that they will die
2. Everyone dies alone is a trivial claim

Question 6

Implications of having souls

Answer 6

• there is an afterlife/possibility for reincarnation
• we can survive our deaths
• we have an immaterial self/ we are not entirly physical beings
• souls are something specific to humans
• after we die we will exist

Question 7

Implications of not having souls

Answer 7

• we are purely physical beings
• there is no afterlife/ reincarnation
• after we die we will not exist

Question 8

Why did epicurus think its difficult to see how death would be bad for the person who dies?

Answer 8

he belives that : “ my death will not be bad for me because I will not exist and nothing can be good or bad for someone who does’nt exist”

Question 9

Kagan’s view on immortality

Answer 9

immortality would be bad in the same way too much chocolate would be bad because too much of a good thing is bad.

Question 10

William’s view on immortality

Answer 10

this is who kagan got his view from, he says that no life is worth living forever and that immortality is bad no matter what.

Question 11

Expirience machine

Answer 11

Plug in to expirience a utopia simulation and you cannot unplug yourself and you don’t know that its not real

Question 12

The absurd

Answer 12

trying to find meaning in a meaningless world is absurd

Question 13

existentialism

Answer 13

Life is meaningless so you must find your own meaning (whatever keeps you from killing yourself)

Question 14

Physicalist view

Answer 14

A person is just their body
be able to explain what conclusions come from this view

Question 15

Arguments for free will

Answer 15

• we punish bad deeds
• the existence of change
• people are constantly breaking cycles
• accountability

Question 16

Arguments against free will

Answer 16

• people are overwhelmingly direct results of their upbringing
• determinism : everything is predetermined by past expiriences (think of the paradoxial nature of law)
• natural laws are pre determined

Question 17

Why sex and death together

Answer 17

• two universal expiriences
• it encompases every other debate because everything will relate to both sex and death
• nobody belives the exact same thing regarding the two