Death

Philosophy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Luper
Keyword(s):  
Moral Issues ◽  
Moral Permissibility ◽  
Persistence Conditions ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Over Time

This article concerns contemporary philosophical discussions of death. The philosophy of death attempts to determine what it is for people and other living things to die, how and the extent to which death and posthumous events benefit or harm those who die, and the morality of killing. The issues that arise might loosely be classified as metaphysical, prudential, and moral. The metaphysical issues concern what death is, and, by extension, what it is to be alive, what you and I are, and what the persistence conditions of living creatures are. (The former issues are covered under the Nature of Death, while the latter are covered under Life and Persistence over Time.) The prudential issues concern how and the extent to which death, posthumous events, and coming to be affect the welfare of those who die (covered under Mortal Harm and Posthumous Harm), and the time when those effects are incurred (covered under The Timing Issue). Finally, the moral issues concern how the prudential significance of death and posthumous events bear on the moral permissibility of killing. When killing is wrong, it is wrong primarily (even if not exclusively) because death harms its victims or because death is imposed on its victims without their consent, which is inconsistent with the respect they are due. Philosophers of death attempt to work out whether and how the harmfulness of dying and consent to being killed bear on the wrongness of killing. (These moral issues are covered under Killing.)

Locke’s Kind-dependent Approach to Identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Ruth Boeker
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Persistence Conditions ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Subsequent Discussion ◽  
Over Time

This chapter offers a close analysis of Locke’s approach to questions of individuation and identity over time. It examines how Locke distinguishes individuation from identity and proposes that Locke’s approach to identity is best understood as kind-dependent. This means that the persistence conditions vary depending on the kind of being under consideration. For Locke it is important to first examine the kind under consideration, before persistence conditions for members of this kind can be specified. More precisely, if the nominal essences of kind F and kind G vary, then it is likely that the persistence conditions for members of kind F will vary from the persistence conditions for members of kind G. This chapter provides the framework for the subsequent discussion of Locke’s account of persons and personal identity.

A Puzzle About Persistence

2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-342
Author(s):  
John W. Carroll ◽  
Lee Wentz
Keyword(s):  
Material Objects ◽  
Persistence Conditions ◽  
Over Time

Our topic is the ontology and persistence conditions of material objects. One widely held doctrine is that identity-over-time has causal commitments. Another is that identity-over-time is just identity (simpliciter) as it relates one object that exists at two times. We believe that a tension exists between these two apparently sensible positions: very roughly, if identity is the primary conceptual component of identity-over-time and—as is plausible—identity is noncausal, then the conceptual origins of the causal commitments of identity-over-time become a mystery. We will begin by formulating the two widely held doctrines and our puzzle more fully and more carefully. Then, the remainder of the paper will be devoted to analyzing views one might adopt that could minimize the tension.

scholarly journals Locke on Individuation and Kinds

Locke Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 87-116
Author(s):  
Joseph Stenberg
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Difference ◽  
Persistence Conditions ◽  
The World ◽  
Oak Tree ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Nominal Essence ◽  
Extrinsic Feature ◽  
Over Time

Locke has been accused of endorsing a theory of kinds that is inconsistent with his theory of individuation. This purported inconsistency comes to the fore in Locke’s treatment of cases involving organisms and the masses of matter that constitute them, for example, the case of a mass constituting an oak tree. In this essay, I argue that this purported problem, known as ‘The Kinds Problem’, can be solved. The Kinds Problem depends on the faulty assumption that nominal essences include only features observable at a time t. Once this assumption is rejected, new candidates open up for the relevant difference in the world that is included in the nominal essence of e.g. mass but not oak tree. And I argue that there is at least one good candidate for the extrinsic feature observable only over time in which the mass differs from the oak it constitutes, namely its persistence conditions. The Kinds Problem can be solved.

scholarly journals Moral Reasoning Enables Developmental and Societal Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162096407
Author(s):  
Melanie Killen ◽  
Audun Dahl
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Age Related Changes

Moral reasoning is an essential part of how humans develop and a fundamental aspect of how human societies change over time. On a developmental timescale, reasoning about interpersonal disagreements and dilemmas spurs age-related changes in moral judgments from childhood to adulthood. When asked to distribute resources among others, even young children strive to balance competing concerns with equality, merit, and need. Over the course of development, reasoning and judgments about resource distribution and other moral issues become increasingly sophisticated. From childhood to adulthood, individuals not only evaluate acts as right or wrong but also take the extra steps to rectify inequalities, protest unfair norms, and resist stereotypic expectations about others. The development of moral reasoning also enables change on a societal timescale. Across centuries and communities, ordinary individuals have called for societal change based on moral concerns with welfare, rights, fairness, and justice. Individuals have effectively employed reasoning to identify and challenge injustices. In this article, we synthesize recent insights from developmental science about the roles of moral reasoning in developmental and societal change. In the concluding section, we turn to questions for future research on moral reasoning and change.

Only God Can Make a Tree

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-66
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Explicit Solution ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Over Time

sProblems about the nature of integral parts and wholes were central to twelfth-century discussions of the individuation and persistence over time of both substances and artifacts. This paper examines in detail Abaelard’s contribution to these discussions arguing that Abaelard proposes a solution to these problems which preserves our common sense intuitions about identity over time. In Abaelard’s work we find an explicit solution to the problem of the identity over time of living things which appeals to the persistence of the vegetative soul through the loss or addition of corporeal matter. In work from the school of the Montani we apparently also have an account of Abaelard’s solution to the problem of the identity over time of artifacts which distinguishes between the role of a part in an integral whole and the material which plays that role such that the role persists when the matter is replaced.

scholarly journals On the Statistical Mechanics of Life: Schrödinger Revisited

Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Jeffery ◽  
Robert Pollack ◽  
Carlo Rovelli
Keyword(s):  
Phase Space ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Random Motion ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Biological Extinction ◽  
Structure Complexity ◽  
Small Bubbles ◽  
Over Time

We study the statistical underpinnings of life, in particular its increase in order and complexity over evolutionary time. We question some common assumptions about the thermodynamics of life. We recall that contrary to widespread belief, even in a closed system entropy growth can accompany an increase in macroscopic order. We view metabolism in living things as microscopic variables directly driven by the second law of thermodynamics, while viewing the macroscopic variables of structure, complexity and homeostasis as mechanisms that are entropically favored because they open channels for entropy to grow via metabolism. This perspective reverses the conventional relation between structure and metabolism, by emphasizing the role of structure for metabolism rather than the converse. Structure extends in time, preserving information along generations, particularly in the genetic code, but also in human culture. We argue that increasing complexity is an inevitable tendency for systems with these dynamics and explain this with the notion of metastable states, which are enclosed regions of the phase-space that we call “bubbles,” and channels between these, which are discovered by random motion of the system. We consider that more complex systems inhabit larger bubbles (have more available states), and also that larger bubbles are more easily entered and less easily exited than small bubbles. The result is that the system entropically wanders into ever-larger bubbles in the foamy phase space, becoming more complex over time. This formulation makes intuitive why the increase in order/complexity over time is often stepwise and sometimes collapses catastrophically, as in biological extinction.

scholarly journals The Culture War and Issue Salience: An Analysis of American Sentiment on Traditional Moral Issues

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW WROE ◽  
EDWARD ASHBEE ◽  
AMANDA GOSLING
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Time Increase ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
First Finding ◽  
Over Time

Despite much talk of a culture war, scholars continue to argue over whether the American public is divided on cultural and social issues. Some of the most prominent work in this area, such as Fiorina's Culture War?, has rejected the idea. However, this work has in turn been criticized for focussing only on the distribution of attitudes within the American public and ignoring the possibility that the culture war may also be driven by the increasing strength with which sections of the population hold their opinions. This paper tests the strength, or saliency, hypothesis using individual-level over-time data and nonlinear regression. It finds (1) that there was a steady and significant increase in concern about traditional moral issues between the early 1980s and 2000, but (2) that the over-time increase was driven by an upward and equal shift in the importance attached to traditional moral issues by Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, evangelicals and non-evangelicals, and frequent and infrequent worshippers alike. While the first finding offers support for the saliency hypothesis and the culture war thesis, the second challenges the idea that Americans are engaged in a war over culture. Both findings enhance but also complicate our theoretical understanding of the culture war, and have important real-world consequences for American politics.

scholarly journals Erosion of the Epigenetic Landscape and Loss of Cellular Identity as a Cause of Aging in Mammals

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae-Hyun Yang ◽  
Patrick T. Griffin ◽  
Daniel L. Vera ◽  
John K. Apostolides ◽  
Motoshi Hayano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Epigenetic Landscape ◽  
Dna Breaks ◽  
Cell Identity ◽  
Epigenetic Information ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Yeast Aging ◽  
Tissue Changes ◽  
Cellular Identity ◽  
Over Time

SUMMARYAll living things experience entropy, manifested as a loss of inherited genetic and epigenetic information over time. As budding yeast cells age, epigenetic changes result in a loss of cell identity and sterility, both hallmarks of yeast aging. In mammals, epigenetic information is also lost over time, but what causes it to be lost and whether it is a cause or a consequence of aging is not known. Here we show that the transient induction of genomic instability, in the form of a low number of non-mutagenic DNA breaks, accelerates many of the chromatin and tissue changes seen during aging, including the erosion of the epigenetic landscape, a loss of cellular identity, advancement of the DNA methylation clock and cellular senescence. These data support a model in which a loss of epigenetic information is a cause of aging in mammals.One Sentence SummaryThe act of repairing DNA breaks induces chromatin reorganization and a loss of cell identity that may contribute to mammalian aging

Change, Continuity and Partisan Sorting on Moral Issues

The Forum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Ridenour ◽  
Elizabeth Schmitt ◽  
Barbara Norrander
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Is public opinion on moral issues basically stable or does it change over time? Evidence from the late 20th century indicated contrary patterns for public opinion on abortion, where attitudes were mostly stable, versus views toward gay rights, where public opinion was moving quickly in the liberal direction. This article examines whether public opinion trends on abortion and gay rights from the 20th century remain the same at the beginning of the 21st century. Second, we explore whether change or continuity better describes public attitudes on a host of moral issues. Finally, we investigate the contribution of partisan sorting to contemporary attitudes on moral issues.

The mythological image of the owner of Altai: functions and semantics

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-36
Author(s):  
L. S. Dampilova ◽  
◽  
Zh. M. Yusha ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Verbal Material ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Material Analysis ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Ritual Text ◽  
Over Time

The paper describes the mythological image of the owner of Altai in the religious beliefs and ritual culture of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. It has been revealed that the degree of preservation of the Altai cult is currently undergoing certain changes, depending on the area of residence of a particular people. The image the owner of Altai has similar mythological, symbolic, virtual, and real features in different peoples existing in a single historical and cultural context. In most of the texts, the dominant functions in his character are those that personify the owner of the land and all living things on it, the patron of wealth, the deity of fertility and procreation. He embodies the features of a heavenly divine being and traditional land masters, making him similar to the White Elder from the Mongolian cultural tradition. We have studied the features of the folklore text functioning in ritual practice, considered the ritual text structure, determined the stable motives of ritual texts addressed to the spirit-master of Altai, and characterized the ethnic specifics of the sacralization and deification of the Altai space in the traditions of the Turkic-Mongolian world. It should be noted that ritual and mythological contexts suggest that connotative semantics reveals the ancient origins of the primary denotation with the help of epithets determining the sacred character meaning. The verbal material analysis has revealed that in some cases, the primary denotative sign is lost or acquires a new mythological version over time.

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