Ordinary Language of 'Death' and Its Philosophical and Bioethical Implications
Research project "Ordinary Language of 'Death' and Its Philosophical and Bioethical Implications" funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland, under the program „Grants for grants - quality promotion V (Horizon Europe)” - Competition VII – regarding the preparation of a project proposal for the European Union research program, no. GGPJ7/HEUROPA/00/645536/2024
Basic information
Project title: Ordinary Language of 'Death' and Its Philosophical and Bioethical Implications
This project investigates the ordinary language of ‘death’ and its philosophical and bioethical implications. Despite growing technological advances in life-support and organ transplantation, significant ambiguity persists regarding the concept of death, which raises profound ethical, philosophical, and practical challenges. The research aims to explore how non-experts conceptualize death, investigating whether laypeople operate with multiple, context-sensitive notions of death (lay pluralism) and how practical concerns influence ascriptions of death (practice-dependence). By employing experimental philosophy and corpusbased natural language processing (NLP) methods, the project will collect empirical data to develop a comprehensive characterization of the ordinary language surrounding death. The project will provide insights into public attitudes towards death, particularly in ambiguous cases like Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS), organ donation, and brain death. These insights will inform ethical and bioethical debates, help predict public responses to medical practices, and explore the implications for legal and clinical decisionmaking. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement with empirical bioethics, the project will bridge gaps between philosophical theories, medical standards, and societal understanding of death, ultimately contributing to more ethically sensitive practices in healthcare and better communication strategies in end-of-life decision-making. The project outcomes will be disseminated through high-impact publications, workshops, and public outreach, promoting broader understanding and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue.
