Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
I examine an argument that appears to take us from Parfit’s [Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1984)] thesis that we have no reason to fulfill desires we no longer care about to the conclusion that the effect of posthumous events on our desires is a matter of indifference (the post-mortem thesis). I suspect that many of Parfit’s readers, including Vorobej [Philosophical Studies 90 (1998) 305], think that he is committed to (something like) this reasoning, and that Parfit must therefore give up the post-mortem thesis. However, as it turns out, the argument is subtly equivocal and does not commit Parfit to the post-mortem thesis. I close with some doubts about Parfit’s case for his indifference thesis.
Identifier
10.1007/s11098-004-7815-0
Publisher
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Repository Citation
Luper, S. (2005). Past desires and the dead. Philosophical Studies, 126(3), 331-345. doi:10.1007/s11098-004-7815-0
Publication Information
Philosophical Studies