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KAUFMAN'S RESPONSE TO LUCRETIUS
Author(s) -
JOHANSSON JENS
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
pacific philosophical quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1468-0114
pISSN - 0279-0750
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0114.2008.00331.x
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , philosophy , epistemology , symmetry (geometry) , mathematics , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry
The symmetry argument is an objection to the ‘deprivation approach’– the account of badness favored by nearly all philosophers who take death to be bad for the one who dies. Frederik Kaufman's recent response to the symmetry argument is a development of Thomas Nagel's suggestion that we could not have come into existence substantially earlier than we in fact did. In this paper, I aim to show that Kaufman's suggestion fails. I also consider several possible modifications of his theory, and argue that they are unsuccessful as well.