#5 – When is death harmful? Fischer on the timing of mortal harm.

Send us a text

In this episode, from the first part of chapter 4 of John Martin Fischer's book, "Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life," I cover and evaluate multiple responses to two Epicurean arguments that death cannot harm the one who dies: the Timing Argument, that there is no time at which death is harmful, and the No Subject Argument, that there is no one who can be harmed by death. I follow Ben Bradley in organizing the range of theories on the timing of mortal harm as responses to The Timing Argument, and evaluate them not only on their own merits but also in how well they provide a response to the No Subject Argument. I give a different ranking of preferred responses to The Timing Argument than what Fischer gives, and argue instead for my favorite response: that the time of death's harm is concurrent or simultaneous with the occurrence of death itself.