What we owe the dead

Journal of Applied Philosophy 26 (1):54-70 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

abstract My aim in this paper is to argue that we have at least some obligations to the dead. After briefly considering some previous (unsuccessful) attempts to establish such obligations, I offer a reductio argument which establishes at least some obligations to the dead. Following this, the surprising extent of these obligations (given a few roughly Kantian assumptions) is considered. I then argue that there are and must be some significant limitations on the duties of the living in relation to the dead. My aim in this paper is not to sort out how we should deal with all of the particular cases in which the question of obligations to the dead emerge — in archaeological digs, research involving the newly dead, the execution of wills, or the fulfilment of last requests — but I will attempt to lay some groundwork for the future assessment of these questions.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The dead donor rule: Not dead yet.Laura A. Siminoff - 2003 - American Journal of Bioethics 3 (1):30.
Research on dead infants.R. S. Downie - 2003 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 24 (2):161-175.
Oversight of research involving the dead.Mark R. Wicclair & Michael A. DeVita - 2004 - Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 14 (2):143-164.
From Night to Day: Nihilism and the Living Dead.John Marmysz - 1996 - Film & Philosophy (Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts) 3:138-143.
Reevaluating the Dead Donor Rule.Mike Collins - 2010 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (2):1-26.
Callahan on Harming the Dead.Anthony Serafini - 1990 - Journal of Philosophical Research 15:329-339.
Ex Post Facto: Peirce and the Living Signs of the Dead.Kieran Cashell - 2007 - Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 43 (2):345-372.
How the Dead Live.Niall Connolly - 2011 - Philosophia 39 (1):83-103.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
118 (#140,574)

6 months
10 (#135,615)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

Real (and) Imaginal Relationships with the Dead.Kathryn J. Norlock - 2017 - Journal of Value Inquiry 51 (2):341-356.
What We Owe Past Selves.Lauritz Aastrup Munch - 2023 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 40 (5):936-950.
Directed Obligations and the Trouble with Deathbed Promises.Ashley Dressel - 2015 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 18 (2):323-335.

View all 8 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references