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Introduction to the Blog

This is a blog authored by students in a course on the philosophy of death at Otterbein University in Westerville, OH. Students will be posting about the issues and readings they are thinking about during their semester. Among the questions they will be addressing are these: Do we have reason to think we survive our deaths? Is immortality something to be wished for or feared? What is the proper attitude to have toward the deaths of others? Is grief a healthy emotion, or something best avoided? How should we think of our own deaths? Should we be afraid? Content? What are the appropriate ways to treat the bodies of people who have died? Other questions may arise along the way, so if you have found your way here from the internet somewhere, stay a while and offer a comment on the posts. Here are some of the things we will be reading: Todd May, Death John Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo Caitlin Doughty, From Here to Etern...
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Is Immortality Bad, & Should we use Religion to find Answers?

The class discussion that we had about the badness of death and immortality, at first, made me think that immortality would be a bad thing since there is the assumption that life would then lose some of its meaning, and the premise is that what makes life special is its ephemeral nature. However, I now disagree with the assumption that immortality is bad on all basis, and the reason why is because immortality is the opposite of death. Further, I am an atheist, so I assume that death is the end. And because I think death is the complete end of us, I reason that immortality, though it might lose some of its meaning when compared to mortality, immortality is still life and must be better than death.  In objection to this, if immortality were a living hell, then death must be better than immortality because it would end suffering.  But really, there is no scientific proof for immortality yet, and there are other ways to explain phenomena besides science. But science dem...
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Getting Over Fear of Death

     Caitlin Doughty's video  Confronting Your Death talks about a specific way that can reduce your fear of death. She mentions that knowing what you want to do with your body after your death will help with fearing it. This was a key reason in why talking about our dead bodies will be important to our fear of death. This helps by getting us to actually talk about our death with the loved ones that'll most likely be around to have to handle it. This is one important way to confront your death; by knowing what you want to do with it.       My objection is that not many will even want to think about this or even want this done to their bodies. Once you die, the consent of your body is taken away from you. It isn't like your no longer alive to make sure your wishes to your body are done. Not many people think of what they want done to their bodies until they're close to death. Knowing what you want done isn't something that comes to someone's ...
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Argument against Todd May's "worry that life will be meaningless"

"Death is the end of us" "Death isn't a goal, it's just the end" "Death is inevitable and uncertain" "1-3 together makes us worry that life is meaningless." Premises one through three are what May claims makes his argument in four valid and hold. We will unpack his premises and find other arguments against them. May does not address people who have set their mind on death as their peaceful end in his argument. Premise two is one I can't agree with. Some hospitalized patients, see their deaths as their goal. They want to die and have made it their sole goal to end some type of suffering. My question therefore is, to these hospitalized individuals suffering, who have made death their sole goal, does May's argument about the miserability of life still hold? I think not. It therefore stands to reason death can be one's actual goal. I know May might or those who subscribe to his argument might argue that there hospitalized p...
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Pieces of Death

Doughty says that cutting up your fear of death into slices can help tackle the fear altogether. She says that if you do not address the specific fears you have about death, the entire thing will be too overwhelming to handle. She lists different fears one might have about death, and then lists ways one can go about feeling better about the specific fears. Personally, I am most afraid of the grief my friends and family would feel after my death, and the pain that could come along with the process of dying. I do like the Idea of writing letters to loved ones so that I know that the last experience they have with me could be positive, and hopefully help ease any of their regrets they might have had related to me. Her suggestion for the fear of pain was to have conversations with your family and doctors about how while you are in the process of dying, you do not want a ton of medical intervention. This helps moderately because it does guarantee less pain in death, but I do not know how mu...
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Do we absolutely need to talk about death with our parents?

Caitlin Doughty makes clear that talking about death with your parents is not easy but is the right thing to do. She says that you need to have this conversation in order to know what they want after they die so you aren’t left in the dark and unsure of what to do when the time comes. She also says that having good conversations about death lessens the pain and depression that comes later in life. I agree with most of what Doughty is saying in her video. What I don’t agree with, however, is the amount of pressure it seems she is putting on families to have this tough conversation. I feel that this conversation should happen naturally and shouldn’t be forced upon somebody who doesn’t want to have it. The conversation will not be productive in any way if only one person is interested in having it. It is a great conversation to have, however I feel like it is one of those things in life that will either happen or it won’t. Take the idea of love for example. Some people have it, and some ...
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Is Death the Most Important Fact About Us?

Our death is the most important fact about us because of... The fact that we will die The fact that we are aware that we are going to die Our awareness that our death could happen at any moment Reasons for this? The fact that we are completely aware that we die is kind of unique to the human experience Death negates us, it is the end of every other fact about us! Reference pages 4, 5 Religion is used to explain what we don’t understand We are not just academically curious about death, we are genuinely concerned about death -- that is what draws people to religious traditions I object to this because I think you can leave a legacy, what people remember about you continues to live on past your death and t he lives you touch in your lifetime are more important than the fact that yours ends. It reminds me of Lucretius's argument that if we don't die, new life cannot arise. I also think that our ...
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