- This pseudo-Paper is intended as the mechanism to record time spent on the Note ‘Makropulos Case’ during my Thesis research, as from 2014.
- Click here for Note.
- For the actual time recorded, click on "Paper Summary" above.
Write-up1 (as at 01/03/2018 18:53:17): Makropulos Case
Plug Note2- This Note will investigate the controversy started in 1973 by "Williams (Bernard) - The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality".
- It is slightly off-topic, in that the focus isn’t on whether there is, in fact, any such thing as immortality3 (for human beings4).
- Rather, it is whether immortality – again for embodied human beings – would be desirable (or, indeed, tolerable).
- Williams’s conclusion – needless to say – is that it is not, though his reasoning is rather subtle.
- Thoughts on the value – or disvalue – of immortality tie in with the evil – or lack of evil – of death5. Some of the items below mention the Makropulos Case in that regard.
- All discussion of the evils of death will fall under this Note.
- Since animalism6 strongly implies that “death is the end of us”, this may be important.
- Works on this topic that I’ve actually read7, include8 the following:-
- "Williams (Bernard) - The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality"
- A reading list (where not covered elsewhere) might start with:-
- "Bradley (Ben) - How Bad Is Death?", Bradley
- "Burley (Mikel) - Atheism and the gift of death", Burley
- "Burley (Mikel) - Immortality and Boredom: A Response to Wisnewski", Burley
- "Burley (Mikel) - Immortality and Meaning: Reflections on the Makropulos Debate", Burley
- "Feldman (Fred) - Some Puzzles About the Evil of Death", Feldman
- "Kaufman (Frederik) - Pre-Vital and Post-Mortem Non-Existence", Kaufman
- "Levine (Michael P.) - What Does Death Have to Do with the Meaning of Life?", Levine
- "Luper-Foy (Steven) - Annihilation", Luper-Foy
- "Moore (Adrian W.) - Williams, Nietzsche, and the Meaninglessness of Immortality", Moore
- "Nussbaum (Martha) - Mortal Immortals: Lucretius on Death and the Voice of Nature", Nussbaum
- "Perrett (Roy W.) - Regarding Immortality", Perrett
- "Preston (Ted M.) & Dixon (Scott) - Who Wants to Live Forever? Immortality, Authenticity, and Living Forever in the Present", Preston & Dixon
- "Rosati (Connie S.) - The Makropulos Case Revisited: Reflections on Immortality and Agency", Rosati
- "Silverstein (Harry) - The Evil of Death", Silverstein
- "Sorensen (Roy) - A Séance with an Immortal", Sorensen
- "Sorensen (Roy) - The Cheated God: Death and Personal Time", Sorensen
- "Steele (Hunter) - Could Body-bound Immortality be Liveable?", Steele
- "Strauss (Jonathan) - After Death", Strauss
- "Suits (David B.) - Why Death Is Not Bad for the One Who Died", Suits
- "Wetzel (James) - Infinite Return: Two Ways of Wagering with Pascal", Wetzel9
- "Wisnewski (J. Jeremy) - Is the Immortal Life Worth Living?", Wisnewski
- This is mostly a place-holder10.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 1: - This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (01/03/2018 18:53:17).
- Link to Latest Write-Up Note.
Footnote 2: - A number of my philosophical Notes are “promissory notes” currently only listing the books and papers (if any) I possess on the topic concerned.
- I’ve decided to add some text – whether by way of motivation, or something more substantive – for all these identified topics related to my Thesis.
- As I want to do this fairly quickly, the text may be confused or show surprising ignorance.
- The reader (if such exists) will have to bear with me, and display the principle of charity while this footnote exists.
Footnote 7: - Frequently I’ll have made copious marginal annotations, and sometimes have written up a review-note.
- In the former case, I intend to transfer the annotations into electronic form as soon as I can find the time.
- In the latter case, I will have remarked on the fact against the citation, and will integrate the comments into this Note in due course.
- My intention is to incorporate into these Notes comments on material I’ve already read rather than engage with unread material at this stage.
Footnote 8: - I may have read others in between updates of this Note – in which case they will be marked as such in the “References and Reading List” below.
- Papers or Books partially read have a rough %age based on the time spent versus the time expected.
Footnote 9: - The discussion of Pascal’s Wager is a tangent on a tangent, but an interesting one nonetheless.
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2018