Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Tag: Benatar

  • Benatar on Suicide: Is Suicide Murder?

    This is the eleventh entry  in a series on David Benatar's The Human Predicament (Oxford UP, 2017). I have decided to skip ahead to Chapter 7, "Suicide," and leave Chapter 6, "Immortality," for later. This episode discusses pp. 163-172. We have seen that for Benatar death, being a part of the human predicament, contra Epicurus, is no solution to…

  • Has Benatar Refuted the Epicurean Argument?

    This is the tenth installment  in a series on David Benatar's The Human Predicament (Oxford UP, 2017). We are still in the very rich Chapter 5, "Death." Herewith, commentary on pp. 123-128.  My answer to the title question is No, but our author has very effectively shown that the Epicurean argument is not compelling, and perhaps even that it is…