Interés en vivir y complejidad psicológicaun criterio transespecífico
ISSN: 1132-8177
Year of publication: 2010
Issue: 26
Pages: 109-122
Type: Article
More publications in: Laguna: Revista de Filosofía
Abstract
According to the Time-relative Interest Account of the harm of death, which Jeff McMahan has proposed, our interest in living is not only determined by the value of our future life, but also by the prudential ties which bind us to it. McMahan maintains that such relations depend significantly on our psychological complexity. This proposal backs up some common assumptions as regards the harm of death. But it also questions anthropocentric views regarding the comparative value of the lives of human beings, since a number of humans (such as babies and those with significant intellectual disabilities) have psychological capacities below those of many nonhuman animals. Apart from this, it is not clear whether the strength of prudential relations is actually determined by psychological complexity