Demise: A Free On-line Philosophy Course from Yale Helps You Grapple with the Inescapable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=playlist

It pays to suppose intel­li­gent­ly in regards to the inevitable. And this course taught by Yale professional­fes­sor Shelly Kagan does simply that, tak­ing a wealthy, philo­soph­i­cal take a look at demise. Right here’s how the course descrip­tion reads:

There may be one factor I will be certain of: I’m going to die. However what am I to make of that reality? This course will examination­ine a num­ber of points that come up as soon as we start to replicate on our mor­tal­i­ty. The pos­si­bil­i­ty that demise could not actu­al­ly be the tip is con­sid­ered. Are we, in some sense, immor­tal? Would immor­tal­i­ty be desir­ready? Additionally a transparent­er notion of what it’s to die is examination­ined. What does it imply to say {that a} per­son has died? What sort of reality is that? And, remaining­ly, dif­fer­ent atti­tudes to demise are eval­u­at­ed. Is demise an evil? How? Why? Is sui­cide ethical­ly per­mis­si­ble? Is it ratio­nal? How ought to the knowl­edge that I’m going to die have an effect on the best way I dwell my life?

Main texts used on this course embody Pla­to’s Phae­do, Tol­stoy’s The Demise of Ivan Ilych, and John Per­ry’sA Dia­logue on Per­son­al Iden­ti­ty and Immor­tal­i­ty. Kagan additionally lat­er pub­lished a com­pan­ion guide–merely known as Demise–which will be pur­chased on-line.

You possibly can watch the 26 lec­tures above. Or discover them on YouTube and iTunes in video and audio for­mats. For extra infor­ma­tion on this course, includ­ing the syl­labus, please vis­it this Yale web site.

This course has been added to our listing of Free On-line Phi­los­o­phy cours­es, a sub­set of our meta col­lec­tion, 1,700 Free On-line Cours­es from High Uni­ver­si­ties.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Aldous Hux­ley, Dying of Can­cer, Left This World Journey­ping on LSD (1963)

Alan Watts Explains Why Demise is an Artwork, Adven­ture and Cre­ative Act

J. Robert Oppen­heimer Explains How, Upon Wit­ness­ing the First Nuclear Explo­sion, He Recit­ed a Line from the Bha­gavad Gita: “Now I Am Turn into Demise, the Destroy­er of Worlds”

Zen Mas­ter Alan Watts Dis­cov­ers the Secrets and techniques of Aldous Hux­ley and His Artwork of Dying

Free On-line Phi­los­o­phy Cours­es