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Article
Avoiding the Asymmetry Problem
Ratio (2018)
  • Travis Timmerman, Seton Hall University
Abstract
If earlier-than-necessary death is bad because it deprives individuals of additional good life, then why isn't later-than-necessary conception bad for the same reason? Deprivationists have argued that prenatal non-existence is not bad because it is impossible to be conceived earlier, but postmortem non-existence is bad because it is possible to live longer. Call this the Impossibility Solution. In this paper, I demonstrate that the Impossibility Solution does not work by showing how it is possible to be conceived earlier in the same senses it is possible to live longer. I then offer a solution to the Asymmetry Problem by suggesting a novel way to separate the badness of each type of non-existence from the type, and frequency, of attitudes we should have towards each type of non-existence. Even if both types of non-existence are equally bad, certain contingent facts about our postmortem non-existence provide reason for the badness of early deaths to be more frequently salient than the badness of late conceptions.
Keywords
  • Death,
  • Deprivationists,
  • Impossibility Solution,
  • Asymmetry Problem
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 2018
Citation Information
Travis Timmerman. "Avoiding the Asymmetry Problem" Ratio Vol. 31 Iss. 1 (2018) p. 88 - 102
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/travis-timmerman/3/