Home
Basic Bioethics
social science
philosophy
The Case against Death

The Case against Death

by Ingemar Patrick Linden

$45.00 Paperback
eBook

270 pp., 6 x 9 in,

Paperback
9780262543163
Published: February 1, 2022
Publisher: The MIT Press

$45.00

eBook
9780262367455
Published: February 1, 2022
Publisher: The MIT Press

$44.99

MIT Press Bookstore
Penguin Random House
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Bookshop.org
Indiebound
Indigo
Books a Million

Other Retailers:

MIT Press Bookstore
Penguin Random House
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Bookshop.org
Indiebound
Indigo
Books a Million
Amazon.co.uk
Blackwells
Bookshop.org
Foyles
Hive
Waterstones

Request permissions

Description
Author(s)
Praise

A philosopher refutes our culturally embedded acceptance of death, arguing instead for the desirability of anti-aging science and radical life extension.

Ingemar Patrick Linden's central claim is that death is evil. In this first comprehensive refutation of the most common arguments in favor of human mortality, he writes passionately in favor of antiaging science and radical life extension. We may be on the cusp of a new human condition where scientists seek to break through the arbitrarily set age limit of human existence to address aging as an illness that can be cured. The book, however, is not about the science and technology of life extension but whether we should want more life. For Linden, the answer is a loud and clear “yes.”

The acceptance of death is deeply embedded in our culture. Linden examines the views of major philosophical voices of the past, whom he calls “death's ardent advocates.” These include the Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Lucretius, and Montaigne. All have taught what he calls “the Wise View,” namely, that we should not fear death. After setting out his case against death, Linden systematically examines each of the accepted arguments for death—that aging and death are natural, that death is harmless, that life is overrated, that living longer would be boring, and that death saves us from overpopulation. He concludes with a “dialogue concerning the badness of human mortality.” Though Linden acknowledges that The Case Against Death is a negative polemic, he also defends it as optimistic, in that the badness of death is a function of the goodness of life.

Ingemar Patrick Linden taught philosophy at NYU for nearly a decade. He is researching public attitudes to radical life extension.

“This book addresses many of the 'curmudgeonly' arguments about immortality that are (too) much in vogue. Linden argues persuasively that death can indeed be a bad thing for an individual and that immortality could indeed be worthy of choice. It helps to achieve a balance in contemporary philosophical debates about these issues, and it helpfully integrates the philosophy within a broader intellectual context.”
John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside

“Very clearly written and completely accessible to any college‐level reader, including those with no background in philosophy. The text is free of needless technicality and full of concrete examples. Readers will have no difficulty seeing the relevance of these issues for their own lives.”
Bioethics

Books

Authors

On the site

The Case against Death

The Case against Death

Related Books