What does the deprivation account say makes death bad?

It holds that death is bad because it deprives a person of the valuable experiences, relationships, and opportunities they would otherwise have had.

How do dualism and physicalism differ about the mind and survival after death?

Dualism treats the mind or soul as distinct from the body, while physicalism views mental life as dependent on the physical brain.

What arguments does Plato's Phaedo offer for the immortality of the soul?

The course examines arguments involving opposites, recollection, and the soul's affinity with unchanging Platonic Forms, along with major criticisms.

Free online course Philosophy of Death

Duration of the online course: 20 hours and 45 minutes

4.5

(2)

Build clearer thinking about mortality with a free philosophy course—explore identity, the soul, and what makes life meaningful, with exercises and certificate.

In this free course, learn about

What metaphysics studies in debates about death, persons, and the afterlife
Dualism vs physicalism: whether minds/persons are nonphysical souls or physical organisms
Key arguments for a soul: consciousness, free will, near-death experiences, Descartes’ reasoning
Plato’s Phaedo: Forms vs physical world and arguments for the soul’s immortality
Major criticisms of Plato’s immortality arguments and limits of those inferences
Personal identity across time: soul theory, body theory, and personality/psychological continuity
Problems for psychological continuity: duplication cases and what really matters for survival
Nature of death via “P-functioning”: what it is to be alive/dead and mere survival vs value
Why death is bad on the deprivation account: loss of future goods and life’s opportunities
Philosophical objections to immortality and how immortality might undermine life’s value
Experience machine issue: whether pleasure alone is what matters, or authenticity/real activity
Fear of death and rational emotions about mortality; how ubiquity of death shapes living well
Suicide: rationality under uncertainty and moral evaluation (e.g., consequentialism)

About the free online course

Death is certain, but our ideas about what it is and why it matters are anything but simple. This free online course invites you to examine mortality with the tools of philosophy, replacing vague assumptions with careful arguments and clearer concepts. You will learn how philosophers ask questions about persons, minds, and meaning, and why these questions shape what we think death takes from us, what might remain, and how we should live while we can.

The course begins by grounding the discussion in metaphysics: what kinds of things exist, what a person is, and whether we are best understood as physical organisms or as beings with an immaterial soul. You will consider major positions such as dualism and physicalism, and work through classic lines of reasoning about consciousness, free will, and reports of near-death experiences. Plato’s Phaedo appears as a central case study, not as a historical artifact, but as a living debate: what arguments are offered for immortality, what assumptions do they rely on, and where do critics think they fail?

From there, the focus turns to personal identity over time. What makes you the same individual from one moment to the next: your soul, your body, or the continuity of your psychology and character? These questions are tested against challenging thought experiments involving change, duplication, and memory loss, pushing you to separate mere survival from what you actually care about when you imagine your own future.

With that foundation, the course explores the nature and badness of death. Is death bad because it is painful, because it ends experience, or because it deprives us of goods we would otherwise have had? You will evaluate the deprivation account and related views, and then examine whether immortality would truly be desirable or whether an endless life could undermine the very sources of meaning and value that make living worthwhile.

Finally, the course addresses fear of death, how to live in light of mortality, and difficult topics such as dying alone and suicide, approached with philosophical rigor rather than sensationalism. Throughout, short exercises help you test your understanding and strengthen your ability to reason carefully about life’s most unavoidable limit. By the end, you will not only know the major arguments in contemporary philosophy of death—you will be better equipped to think, speak, and decide with clarity when these questions become personal.

Course content

Video class: 1. Course introduction 46m
Exercise: In the context of a philosophy course on the nature of death, which of the following topics would be considered as part of metaphysics?

Video class: 2. The nature of persons: dualism vs. physicalism 41m
Exercise: According to the philosophical discussion on personal identity and the possibility of surviving death, which concept must we understand to address the question of life after death?
Video class: 3. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part I 45m
Exercise: According to the physicalist view discussed in the lecture, what is the mind considered to be?
Video class: 4. Introduction to Plato's Phaedo; Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part II 49m
Exercise: According to the lecture, what is one argument suggesting the existence of a soul due to consciousness?
Video class: 5. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part III: Free will and near-death experiences 48m
Exercise: According to compatibilism in the philosophy of free will, how can free will coexist with determinism?
Video class: 6. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part IV; Plato, Part I 35m
Exercise: What is the core idea of Descartes' argument as discussed in the lecture?

Video class: 7. Plato, Part II: Arguments for the immortality of the soul 46m
Exercise: According to Plato's metaphysical views presented in 'Phaedo', how are the Platonic forms characterized in relation to the physical world?
Video class: 8. Plato, Part III: Arguments for the immortality of the soul (cont.) 49m
Exercise: According to the discussion in the text, what is a fundamental criticism of Plato's argument about the immortality of the soul?
Video class: 9. Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the immortality of the soul (cont.) 50m
Exercise: According to the arguments discussed by the professor, what is a major critique of Plato's argument for the immortality of the soul?

Video class: 10. Personal identity, Part I: Identity across space and time and the soul theory 49m
Exercise: According to physicalism, how is the concept of personal identity over time explained without relying on the existence of a soul?
Video class: 11. Personal identity, Part II: The body theory and the personality theory 50m
Exercise: Which theory of personal identity suggests that the continuity of a person's physical form is the key to their identity?
Video class: 12. Personal identity, Part III: Objections to the personality theory 51m
Exercise: What is the personality theory of personal identity primarily concerned with?
Video class: 13. Personal identity, Part IV; What matters? 48m
Exercise: According to the discussion on personal identity, what is one major criticism against the personality theory when considering cases of duplication?

Video class: 14. What matters (cont.); The nature of death, Part I 47m
Exercise: In the lecture on the philosophy of death, the distinction between mere survival and what truly matters for an individual was explored. According to the lecture, what might be a possible outcome in a situation where a person's soul continues to exist but undergoes complete irreversible amnesia?
Video class: 15. The nature of death (cont.); Believing you will die 44m
Exercise: In the discussion of the philosophy of death, what does Professor Kagan suggest about the concept of 'P-functioning' in relation to being alive or dead?
Video class: 16. Dying alone; The badness of death, Part I 49m
Exercise: According to the philosophical discussion of death, what argument is suggested to explain why many people spend most of their lives focused on material success rather than on relationships and personal fulfillment?

Video class: 17. The badness of death, Part II: The deprivation account 51m
Exercise: According to the deprivation account of the badness of death discussed in the lecture, what is the primary reason why death is considered bad?
Video class: 18. The badness of death, Part III; Immortality, Part I 50m
Exercise: According to the deprivation account of death, what is considered to be bad about death?
Video class: 19. Immortality Part II; The value of life, Part I 49m
Exercise: What is the main argument against the desirability of immortality, as discussed in the text?

Video class: 20. The value of life, Part II; Other bad aspects of death, Part I 50m
Exercise: What is the main philosophical issue discussed in the description related to the 'experience machine'?
Video class: 21. Other bad aspects of death, Part II 49m
Exercise: How might the concept of 'ubiquity of death' affect our perception of living life effectively?

Video class: 22. Fear of death 47m
Exercise: Which emotion is considered rationally appropriate when reflecting on one's own mortality, according to the philosophical discussion?
Video class: 23. How to live given the certainty of death 46m
Exercise: What is a central theme discussed in the course regarding how one should live in light of mortality?

Video class: 24. Suicide, Part I: The rationality of suicide 45m
Video class: 25. Suicide, Part II: Deciding under uncertainty 50m
Exercise: In the philosophical discussion about the rationality of suicide, what is one reason that might be used to argue against its rationality?
Video class: 26. Suicide, Part III: The morality of suicide and course conclusion 47m
Exercise: Which moral theory suggests that the morality of an action is determined solely by its consequences, aiming to maximize happiness and minimize suffering?