Death – „There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?”

Ethics and evidence in end of life decision making. Interdisciplinary perspectives – „End-of-life decision making has been subject of intensive normative as well as empirical analysis. Traditionally, the question of what constitutes a good end of life is dealt with in the field of normative ethics. However, socio-empirical and clinical research can deliver important information for ethical judgements about end-of-life practice. Moreover, an in creasing number of research studies focus on eliciting data which are relevant for ethical considerations near the end of life. In recent years several interventions have been developed which shall support practice and decision making in ethically difficult situations. The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers from different scientific fields in europe and the us who are currently conducting research which can further the understanding of end-of-life decision making and stimulate the development of interventions which may support patients, care-givers and healthcare professionals with ethically difficult decisions at the end of life”.

The Philosophy of Death – „This class provides an in-depth introduction to the philosophical problems surrounding death. It takes its starting point in the fact that everyone, eventually, will die. This is one of the few facts that human beings can be absolutely sure about. Given this certainty, however, death still presents us with many difficult and pressing questions. What does it mean to die in the first place? Who or what is the “person” that dies? Is it merely a physical body, or is it also something like a soul, and, if so, does the existence of a soul indicate that there is some hope of immortality? Moreover, what should our attitude toward death be? Should we think of it as a good thing or a bad thing? And what effect should it have on the way we live our lives? At some point in our lives, we all grapple with these questions. This course uses the doctrines and arguments of a number of prominent philosophers concerning death as a means to investigate these and other questions. The course is organized around the lectures of Shelly Kagan, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, who develops his own philosophy of death over the length of the course. Its major purpose, aside from familiarizing you with the writings of major philosophers on the subject of death, is to teach you how to think about death philosophically—to decide for yourself what you believe about death and to provide careful and convincing arguments for those beliefs”.