On the Finitude of Life: Bernard Williams from a Kantian Standpoint

This paper sheds light on some arguments in favor of the thesis that human life’s finiteness is something desirable for human beings, by supporting the thesis of the goodness of mortality in the contemporary debate on the so-called ‘philosophy of death’ through a recourse to Kant’s philosophy. Starting from contemporary philosophical debates and focusing on reflections by Bernard Williams, Shelly Kagan, Martha Nussbaum, John M. Fischer, Connie Rosati, and Thomas Nagel, a novel interpretation of Kant’s ideas on the finitude of human life is offered.