PHL281H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Endangerment, Epicureanism, Dementia
Document Summary
Historical philosophers argue that when you think about morality and death, it appears that we should not be using our active capacities to destroy our passive sides; that is, we have a duty not to kill ourselves. For kant, this is because we have to abstract from our particularities about our passive side when we appeal to our active sides. For aquinas, there is a natural law that we should follow. Against this, we have hume, who argues that nature doesn"t tell us what to do, insofar as whatever we do will implicitly be natural. Hardwig argues from an american context, saying that we sometimes have a duty to die. We have to die insofar as we are mortal. Duties are understood as constraints on our choices often enforceable. Correlative to our right is a duty on the part of others not to invade our rights.
