23. How to live given the certainty of death

Death (PHIL 176)
In this lecture, Professor Kagan invites students to pose the question of how one should live life knowing that it will certainly end in death. He also explores the issue of how we should set our goals and how we should go about achieving them, bearing in mind the time constraints. Other questions raised are how this ultimately affects the quality of our work and our accomplishments, as well as how we decide what is worth doing in life.
00:00 - Chapter 1. How Carefully Should We Live?
11:21 - Chapter 2. Time Constraints and Goals: Finding Appropriate Contents for Life
17:30 - Chapter 3. Quantity of Life: The More, the Better?
32:38 - Chapter 4. Semi-Immortality through Accomplishments
40:21 - Chapter 5. Life Is Suffering: An Alternative Approach to Living
Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu
This course was recorded in Spring 2007.