LIFE AND DEATH

What is it about?

How to estimate the value of a life? The paper assesses the stream of events that a person experiences using subjective time rather than the time on a clock. For example, old people find that time seems to pass quicker than young people because they have fewer new things to register. The results have implications not only for how we think about our lives but also for our attitude to death. A formal analysis yields conclusions broadly in line with the ideas of the philosopher Epicurus.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Economists and social philosophers are often utilitarians and so evaluate a life as a discounted sum of the utilities a person experiences at each instant of objective time. Parfitt's "repugnant conclusion" is one of many problems that then arise. The paper shows that the supposedly rock-solid axioms to which utilitarians appeal have equally solid rivals.