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Lucretius on Death and Re-ExistenceIn Tim Madigan & David B. Suits (eds.), Lucretius: his continuing influence and contemporary relevance, Rit Cary Graphic Arts Press. pp. 117-132. 2011.
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40Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big QuestionsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better if we were immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Life, Death, and Meaning brings together key readings, primarily by English-speaking philosophers, on such 'big questions.'.
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37Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatar's distinctive anthology designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy has won a devoted following among users in a variety of upper-level and even introductory courses.
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16Epicurus: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance (edited book)Cary Graphic Arts Press. 2003.The philosophy of Epicurus (c. 341-271 B. C. E.), has been a quietly pervasive influence for more than two millennia. At present, when many long revered ideologies are proven empty, Epicureanism is powerfully and refreshingly relevant, offering a straightforward way of dealing with the issues of life and death. The chapters in this book provide a kaleidoscope of contemporary opinions about Epicurus' teachings. They tell us also about the archeological discoveries that promise to augment the scan…Read more
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The Fixation of Satisfaction: Epicurus and Peirce on the GoalIn Dane R. Gordon & David B. Suits (eds.), Epictetus: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance, Rit Press. pp. 139-155. 2014.
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133Death and other nothingsPhilosophical Forum 43 (2): 215-230. 2012.One kind of attempt to defeat the Epicurean conclusion that "death is nothing to us" is the claim that death could be some kind of unexperienced harm. The possibility of such harm is thought to be made plausible by analogy to the possibility of unexperienced harm in life, and it has motivated the invention of many thought experiments which attempt to show that in life one can indeed be harmed without experiencing the harm or its effects in any way. But such attempts fail to weaken the Epicurean …Read more
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Lucretius on Death and Re-ExistenceIn Tim Madigan & David B. Suits (eds.), Lucretius: his continuing influence and contemporary relevance, Rit Cary Graphic Arts Press. pp. 117-132. 2011.
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73Really believing in fictionPacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (3). 2006.How is it possible to respond emotionally to that which we believe is not the case? All of the many responses to this "paradox of fiction" make one or more of three important mistakes: (1) neglecting the context of believing, (2) assuming that belief is an all-or-nothing affair, and (3) assuming that if you believe that p then you cannot also reasonably believe that not-p. My thesis is that we react emotionally to stories because we do believe what stories tell us – not fictionally-believe, not …Read more
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10Lucretius: his continuing influence and contemporary relevance (edited book)RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press. 2011.The essays in this collection deal with Greek philosopher Lucretius's critique of religion, his critique of traditional attitudes about death, and his influences on later thinkers such as Isaac Newton and Alfred Tennyson. 144 pp.
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110Some Considerations About the Discovery of Principles of JusticeEidos: The Canadian Graduate Journal of Philosophy 1 (1): 50-67. 1978.
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34Steep Cliff ArgumentsArgumentation 13 (2): 127-138. 1999.In recent philosophical debates a number of arguments have been used which have so much in common that it is useful to study them as having a similar structure. Many arguments -- Searle's Chinese Room, for example -- make use of thought experiments in which we are told a story or given a narrative context such that we feel we are in comfortable surroundings. A new notion is then introduced which clashes with our ordinary habits and associations. As a result, we do not bother to investigate serio…Read more
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29Epicurus and the Singularity of Death: Defending Radical EpicureanismBloomsbury Academic. 2020.Epicurus's claim that "death is nothing to us" is defended. The usual concepts of harm, loss and suffering do not apply in the case of death. Immortality need not be bad. Epicurean prudence does not recommend suicide. Some issues in applied ethics are also discussed: the right to life, egoistic friendship, wills, and life insurance.
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255On Locke's Argument for GovernmentJournal of Libertarian Studies 1 (3): 195-203. 1977.Locke claimed that a government (with legislative, executive and judicial functions) is necessary to relieve people of the inconveniences of a state of nature. But those three functions can be provided by private arrangements in a state of nature.
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136Out of the chinese roomComputing and Philosophy Newsletter 4 1-7. 1989.A criticism of Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment.
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27Epictetus: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance (edited book)RIT Press. 2014.Epictetus was born a slave. His master, Epaphroditus, allowed him to attend the lectures of the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus and later gave him his freedom. From numerous references in his Discourses it is clear that Epictetus valued freedom as a precious possession. He would have been on the side of the many people living now who, while not actually enslaved, are denied true freedom by the harsh circumstances of their lives. Epictetus's teachings about freedom and human dignity have echoed …Read more
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Rochester Institute of TechnologyRetired faculty
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Henrietta, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Death and Dying |
Anarchism |
Areas of Interest
3 more
Death and Dying |
Anarchism |
Right to Life |
Subjunctive Conditionals, Misc |
Audience Engagement in Film |
Paradox of Fiction |
Time |
The Infinite |