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Should the retrospective ideas, advice, and wisdom of a dying person be heeded and followed in our own lives? That is, if a dying person wishes they would have lived in a different way, or says that certain things were the most valuable, should we follow this advice, and even change our lives to suit?

February 17, 2006

Response from Bernard Gert on February 18, 2006
There seems to be no more reason to heed the retrospective ideas, advice, and wisdom of a dying person than of that same person when he is not dying. If he is the sort of person who gave good advice previously, then what he says should be heeded; if he is the sort of person who did not give give good advice previously, then his advice shoud not be heeded. There is no reason to believe that dying makes anyone wiser than they were before.
Response from Andrew N. Carpenter on February 19, 2006

To add to my colleague’s excellent comment, one might think that, for many of us at least, dying is such a stressful time--with respect to health, emotionality, family dynamics, etc.--that a dying person is in a relatively poor position to form and communicate considered wisdom about life.

To be sure, for some the perspective of one's imminent death might be useful and constructive (as, for example, Hegel asserts when he defends the ethical utility of warfare), but I suspect that popular culture tends to exaggerate this possibility.

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