PHL281H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Deontological Ethics, Categorical Imperative, Immanuel Kant
Document Summary
Active: we lead our lives, searching for meaning. Passive: our lives happen to us, in virtue of biology, human nature, luck, etc. A moral theory must balance these two sides. Nagel argued that death is usually a meaningfulness harm: it robs us of the opportunity to inject more meaning into life, in response to nagel, lucretius might say that meaning is an illusion. He argues that the active side of our nature lets us put our whole lives into perspective. Death might be a meaningfulness bene t: when we think of how we put meaning into our lives, however, we do it in light of the passive side of our nature. Suicide is the international use of the active side of our nature to destroy then passive side (and the activity it supports). This can be construed as the passive side of the nature overcoming/domniating the active side of nature.
