News - Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics - Faculty of Philosophy

8th October 2020: Research seminar online - Vilius Dranseika (Jagiellonian University); Ivars Neiders (Riga Stradins University) - Dying, ceasing to exist, and ‘what we are’

We have the pleasure to invite you for a research seminar in the ‘BIOUNCERTAINTY’ research project. The subject of the seminar is 'Dying, ceasing to exist, and "what we are"' and it will be delivered by Vilius Dranseika (Jagiellonian University) and Ivars Neiders (Riga Stradins University). The seminar will take place on Thursday, 8th of October, at 5:30pm only on MS Teams (link below).

Abstract: Recent research on folk beliefs about death determination suggests that people differ quite markedly in their opinions on when we die (Neiders and Dranseika 2020). In this paper, we attempt to extend this empirical result in a number of directions. First, is this sort of disagreement about death a robust phenomenon? Second, do people similarly disagree about when we begin/cease to exist? Third, do people disagree about ‘what we are’? Fourth, are the three issues (When do we die? When do we begin/cease to exist? What we are?) systematically linked in folk cognition? In order to address these questions, we conducted an exploratory online vignette-based survey with Latvian participants (N = 1481). We found that people's opinions on 'what we are' are linked both with their judgments whether someone still/no longer exists and with their judgments whether someone is dead or alive.

Vilius Dranseika hold MA in Philosophy from Vilnius University, Lithuania. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Philosophy of Memory, Genoble Alpes University, France. In his thesis at Grenoble (supervised by prof. Kourken Michaelian), he applies the methods of experimental philosophy to issues in philosophy of personal identity and memory.

Ivars Neiders is an assistant professor at the Rīga Stradiņš University. His main areas of interest are bioetics, research ethics and methods of experimental philosophy.

Join the meeting HERE

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