Introduction : philosophical thinking and death -- Philosophy and the death of Ivan Ilyich -- Metaphysics -- Epistemology -- Ethics -- Philosophical thinking -- Philosophical vs. ordinary thinking -- Philosophical thinking and death -- Three kinds of fundamental questions -- The value of philosophical thinking about death and dying -- References -- pt. I. The nature of death -- Introduction : the 9/11 memorial and death denial -- 1. Definition and criteria of death -- The death of Terri Schiavo -- Traditional heart-lung definition -- The challenge posed by biomedical technology -- The challenge posed by transplantation -- Whole-brain death definition -- Challenges to the whole-brain formulation -- Return to the heart-lung formulation -- Adopt a higher-brain formulation -- Adopt a brainstem formulation -- The biological vs. psycho-social debate : organisms vs. persons -- Death of the organism : a biological perspective -- Death of the person : a psycho-social perspective -- Problems with the person-based view -- The person-based reply -- Lingering questions about brain death -- Definition or permission? -- Help or harm? -- Event or process? -- Conclusions -- References --
2. Death in the West -- A Wisconsin death trip -- Premodern attitude (to 1900) : death visible and tamed -- Early Middle Ages (500-1000) : death as destiny -- Latter Middle Ages (1000-1400) : death of self -- The age of enlightenment (1650-1750) : fear checked by reason -- Romanticism (1750-1850) : fear sublimated in the death of others -- The Modern Age (1900-1975) : death invisible and wild -- Scientific vs. traditional worldview -- Postmodern Age (1975-present) : death open and available -- The fear of death -- Conclusions -- References -- 3. The consciousness of death -- The beheading of Nicholas Berg and the imminence of death -- The instinctual basis of the fear of death -- The argument from biology -- The argument from psychoanalysis -- Existential thought and the fear of death -- Kierkegaard -- Human nature as a union of opposites -- "The predicament of the existing individual" -- "The dizziness of freedom" -- "Shut-upness" -- Objective vs. subjective thinking -- Relation with the infinite -- Heidegger -- Awareness of one's being -- "Thrownness" and "angst" -- "Being-towards-death" -- "Fallenness" -- "Fleeing in the face of death" vs. "living in the light of death" -- Death as an event -- Death as an existential phenomenon -- Conclusions -- References -- 4. The evil of death -- Waiting for Godot -- The problem of the evil of death -- Death as not bad : the Epicurean argument -- Death as bad : deprivation theory -- The rationality of death -- Is it irrational to fear death? -- Is it rational to be led by the fear of death? -- Conclusions -- References --
pt. II. Survival of death -- Introduction : a death in the family -- 5. The self and its relation to death -- Dualistic view of human nature -- Plato -- The soul's existence -- Descartes -- The mind-body problem -- Responses to the mind-body problem -- Reductive theories of mind -- Critical responses to reductive theories of mind -- The persistence of personal identity -- Body -- Soul -- Memory -- No-self -- Hume -- Conclusions -- References -- 6. Survival hypotheses -- Disembodied or pure individual mind -- Resurrection -- Judaism -- Islam -- Christianity -- Reincarnation -- Hinduism -- Buddhism -- Christianity -- Western philosophy -- Mystical union -- Hinduism -- Taoism -- Buddhism -- Western philosophy -- Conclusions -- References -- 7. Bases for afterlife belief -- "After-death.com" and life everlasting -- The argument from theology -- The argument from morality -- The argument from globalism -- The argument from human development -- Irenaean theodicy -- Bergson's elan vital -- The argument from parapsychological phenomena -- Past life -- Near death experiences -- Deathbed visions -- Apparitions and materializations -- Out-of-body experiences -- Messages from the dead and the beyond -- Conclusion -- References --
pt. III. Voluntary death -- Introduction : Quinlan, Perlmutter, Cruzan -- 8. Conceptual issues in suicide and euthanasia -- Garrett Hardin and the profile of suicide -- Suicide : the problem of definition -- Self-sacrificial deaths -- Coerced deaths -- Euthanasia -- Definition : narrow and broad interpretations -- Killing vs. allowing to die -- A distinction with a difference? -- Yes (narrow interpretation) -- No (broad interpretation) -- Voluntary and nonvoluntary decisions -- Voluntary decisions -- Nonvoluntary decisions -- Conclusions -- References -- 9. History and contemporary opinion -- Suicide as an offense to God, neighbor, self : Plato and Aristotle -- Suicide as rational : the stories -- Suicide as sinful : Augustine and Aquinas -- Suicide as beneficial to self and others : Hume -- "On suicide" -- Suicide as violating moral responsibility : Kant -- The argument from free will -- The argument from human nature -- The argument from autonomy -- Argument from divine will -- Suicide as a social utility : Bentham and Mill -- Assisted suicide : the contemporary picture -- Physician assistance -- World legal opinion -- U.S. public and professional opinion -- Initiatives and legislation -- Oregon's Death with Dignity Act -- Conclusions -- References -- 10. Individual morality -- The assisted death of Velma Howard -- Principles -- Utility/happiness -- Respect for persons -- Natural law -- Virtue -- Conclusions -- References --
11. Social policy and law
Self-regarding vs. other-regarding virtues and vices
The case for indirect harm
The case against indirect harm
12. Futile treatment and the duty to die
The case of Helga Wanglie
Medical futility : physician beneficence vs. patient autonomy
Arguments for limiting patient autonomy
Arguments against limiting patient autonomy
Uncertain prognoses/mistaken diagnoses
From patient to family-centered bioethics : the ideas of John Hardwig
Conclusion : life, death, and meaning
Death gives meaning to life
Death as necessary for life
Death as part of the life cycle
Death as ultimate affirmation
Death as motive to commitment and engagement
Death as stimulus to creativity
Self-consciousness and freedom
Criticism of the Western conceptions of "progress"
The challenge of Nihilism
The examined life, death, and meaning
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