On the appropriateness of grief to its object

Ratcliffe, Matthew, Richardson, Louise and Millar, Becky 2023. On the appropriateness of grief to its object. Journal of the American Philosophical Association 9 (2) , pp. 318-334. 10.1017/apa.2021.55

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Abstract

How we understand the nature and role of grief depends on what we take its object to be and vice versa. This paper focuses on recent claims by philosophers that grief is frequently or even inherently irrational or inappropriate in one or another respect, all of which hinge on assumptions concerning the proper object of grief. By emphasizing the temporally extended structure of grief, we offer an alternative account of its object that undermines these assumptions and dissolves the apparent problems. The principal object of grief, we suggest, is a loss of life possibilities, which is experienced, understood, and engaged with over a prolonged period. Other descriptions of grief's object identify more specific aspects of this loss in ways that do not respect a straightforward distinction between concrete and formal objects.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	2053-4477
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 March 2024
Last Modified:	14 Mar 2024 16:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/167174

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