Deprivationism

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Deprivationism is the label given to the rather intuitive view that death is bad for the deceased because it deprives them of future goods. This paper considers two versions of this view, the one typically found in the literature and the one originally offered by Thomas Nagel. After laying out the key differences between them, it is argued that we have good reasons to prefer Nagel’s deprivationism to the typical version. Along the way, consideration is given to how all of this relates to the debate between deprivationists and Epicureans.