The central claim of the philosopher Ingemar Patrick Linden is that death is evil. His new book "The Case Against Death" is a comprehensive refutation of the most common arguments in favour of human mortality.

Dr Linden will be speaking to London Futurists at this webinar, sharing key arguments from his book, and answering audience questions.

Linden is a passionate advocate of antiaging science and radical life extension. He believes that we are on the cusp of a new human condition where scientists address aging as an illness that can be cured, and break through the arbitrarily set age limit of human existence. His book, however, is not about the science and technology of life extension. Instead, it's about whether we should want more life. For Linden, the answer is a loud and clear “yes.”

The acceptance of death is deeply embedded in our culture. In his book, Linden examines the views of major philosophical voices of the past, whom he calls “death's ardent advocates.” These include the Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Lucretius, and Montaigne. All have taught what he calls “the Wise View,” namely, that we should not fear death. That's a view which Linden rejects.

Linden systematically examines each of the accepted arguments for death - that aging and death are natural, that death is harmless, that life is overrated, that living longer would be boring, and that death saves us from overpopulation. He concludes with a “dialogue concerning the badness of human mortality.” Though Linden acknowledges that "The Case Against Death" is a negative polemic, he also defends it as optimistic, in that the badness of death is a function of the goodness of life. Moreover, he argues that it is important to awaken people from their passivity regarding death.

Accordingly, the way the general public think about death in the not-so-distant future could be significantly different from today.

See https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/case-against-death