All the norms around burial culture are contrivances made up by humans and have little basis in the natural world. That the dead even deserve respect is similarly made-up.
One's involuntary submission to the whims of the living is part of the process of death. If one does anything even remotely notable you can be assured that society will want something to do with it. There's no point in chastising the entire world because of it.
> All the norms around burial culture are contrivances made up by humans and have little basis in the natural world. That the dead even deserve respect is similarly made-up.
Not sure elephants, among other species, would agree.
There are some such values, but I recognize their fragility in the face of actual human behavior.
And indeed, I think a lot of aspects of culture are dumb and that society would be better off without. It would be better if the world returned to the basics instead of endlessly wrapping itself around an axle of contrivances.
Well, burials only matter if others care about it. Other values, such as "do not harm others", etc., matter even if others don't care about them, because they concern actual suffering of living people.
If you follow Parfit, you choose that the latter kind is the only kind to care about, and so caring about burials for the sake of the one buried would be nonsensical to you.
One's involuntary submission to the whims of the living is part of the process of death. If one does anything even remotely notable you can be assured that society will want something to do with it. There's no point in chastising the entire world because of it.