Death

Huneman takes up several central questions in the scientific study of death. His aim is to trace how these questions took shape, to expose the assumptions built into them, and to show where they open new lines of inquiry. The work is organized in two parts, one on physiology and one on evolutionary biology.

The physiology section reconstructs a conceptual history of experimental physiology, based on a detailed examination of Bichat's investigations into the processes of dying. The evolutionary section turns to a research framework that biologists proposed in the late 1950s. That framework explained death in evolutionary terms, either as a consequence of natural selection's diminishing force or as a side effect of selection favoring early reproduction.

Throughout, Huneman argues that the biology of death is a central field in its own right. Studying it shows how the epistemic structure of this knowledge was formed and how it has persisted up to the present. He also suggests that this structure may come into tension with some traditional philosophical ideas.