The Philosophy of Death

The idea of a soul and whether we continue on in an afterlife is debated in the book,  A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality.   I agree with Sam Williams argument that we do go to an afterlife because we all posses souls.  Gretchen argues that our soul are not connected to our physical body and that the only thing that will happen after death is her body rotting away in a coffin.  Her soul is not apart of her she says so she will not continue on in an afterlife.  I think that if someone does believe that we all have souls then they should also believe that they are connected to us.  If we have souls that just roam around and are not personally connected to us and go from someone else's body to another, what makes it our soul.  We would no longer have a soul if it was not connected to us.  So if someone says we have souls then I would think that you then have to think they are connected with us.  Gretchen made good points in some of ...

What happens when we die?  Is it the end?  The beginning? Or a fresh start?  Since the dawn of time humankind's most pondered question in life has always been centered around the idea of death and what comes next.  Around the globe, despite the multiple religious distinctions that divide this planet, the population of the world has really only been split up into two differing groups.  There are those who believe that death is the end and that this is all the time we get.  And there are those who believe that death is merely an ending to this chapter of our life here on earth meant to signal our passing into another place.  Those who do not believe in the possibility of an afterlife however do so on the basis of fear. To the secularists of the world like Gretchen Weirob, the idea of a life after death is too irrational to believe because of all the logistics that go into thinking about what that could mean for us as people.  Why would God put us ...

                Immortality could be looked at as being good, but also as being bad.  "Why do we want immortality?" "Are there any benefits?" "Why isn't immortality a good thing?" "Shouldn't we all want to live forever?"                  There are reasons both for and against immortality. Some reasons for immorality, is we get to do everything we've always wanted to do. To some people, immortality could be the best thing that has ever happened to them. Learning is the greatest thing we can do for ourselves. The more we know, the more involved we are in society. We could have a better life going out, exploring, and learning everything the world has to offer. Living forever means there is no fear of death. Death happens to be something that deeply saddens a lot of people, but it's just something that happens.                   Immortality can be lo...

Throughout history, death is a subject not touched on a lot in the western world. In other Cultures, an individuals end is seen like their beginning. Some have accepted the hard truth that death compliments life. That without death life itself will hold no value to mankind. Our life in my opinion is a journey with death being the final destination. We take this journey and make decisions because we know there is a final destination. The lives of mortals are supposed to end at a time not known to any man. Religions and cultures have a notion of what happens after death. Some believe there is a heaven and hell, others reincarnation, and others nothingness. Many people believe these things and it gives rest to their mind. Whichever story one believes in alters their choices in life. These choices made in life are to determine where and how the afterlife treats you. This makes us aware of the possibility that the fear people have isn't because they're going to die, but rather bec...

“ So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” Dealing with the death of a loved one can be a hard thing for us to handle. It can lead to a subconscious state of grieving. It's not something we can initially prepare ourselves for; it's a process that takes a lot of time for healing. I can personally tie the feeling of grief with the lyrics above from Pink Floyd's song Time.  Grief can take ahold of us more than we can even fathom, like a riptide. We fall into a redundancy where we're running after the sun. We are lost as grief takes ahold of us, day and night. We might always ask ourselves when we will feel normal again, why it happened, or what we could've done about it, and just overall feeling hopeless and shattered. Grief passes with time and the feeling may still be relevant, but w...

In the United States, the discussion of death and dying is not a topic people want to talk about. In American culture, the topic of mortality is unsettling to think about because we fear the thought of death. It can lead to us feeling as if we didn’t accomplish our goals in our life and that can result in a lot of regrets. And, we don’t know what happens to us after death so thinking about it causes us to stress over what will happen. When a death occurs, we mourn over losing our loved ones. We are sad and begin to grieve about how they aren’t in our life anymore. We view death as a sad topic and according to Caitlin Doughty, that is the reason why Americans fear death so much.    In Caitlin  Doughty’s   From Here to Eternity,  she learns about how different cultures deal with death. Through this, she began this view of the good death. The good death to me is t o show a better image of death to make it not as uncomfortable as it is for some and to help peo...

I think funerals are very important because they serve as a memorial to a life well spent and a healing center for the bereaved. Also that, people react to loss a different way and undergo different processes to celebrate a loved one life.  Therefore, I think there is no wrong way to have a funeral as long it has a sense of community and aligns with the dead person. A  belief  that Caitlin Doughty cosigns in her  book “From Here  to Eternity:   Traveling  the World to Find the Good Death’’ where she  looks  at different burial rituals in  honor  of the  dead .  Each culture heavily involves the dead family members in the funeral process;  whether is them watching  their loved ones burn on an open pyre or  taking  their  remains  away with chopsticks.   We  are  taking   them   care  of  them  in their  death  to  thank   them  fo...

Immortality isn’t what it’s cracked up to be              At first glance, immortality seems great. You would have all the time in the world to do whatever you want, you would be able to see how the world grows and changes throughout the years, and, of course, you would never need to worry about how and/or when you will die. However, when more thought is put into this, immortality doesn’t seem as desirable as before. Once you do everything, what else is there to do? Do it all again? A third time? Things would start to become repetitive sooner or later. Once you’ve done all you wanted to do, you’re trapped in a kind of eternal state of boredom with no means of escape. It would start to literally drive you to insanity. If you were to obtain immortality, you would need to go through way too much grief that a human should have to. The connections you make with others would come and go so frequently. There would come a time ...

An argument against Immortality Immortality means that you have the ability to live forever.  I don't think that we can live forever because immortality leads to chaos.  Living forever would be pointless because you don't have to make decisions at all really;immortality is impossible because it causes environmental and health problems which would force the entirety of nature to die including humans.  Once you have lived forever, you will have experienced everything and see little to no change at all.  Although infrastructures and things change, they really don't because people will simply just build off of what's already there instead of creating anything new.  Living forever will only make racial tensions and economic problems worse because people can spend and borrow money forever and forever causing debt to accrue infinitely.  The reason that immortality will make racial tensions worse is because the concept of racism will still exist.  Debt stil...

One of the central arguments of From Here to Eternity that Caitlin Doughty reveals to be a core philosophy of hers about death that developed over her whole life, certainly including the events of the book, is that" we are not beholden to our distance from and shame around death. The first step to fixing the problem is to show up, to be present and engaged." That is, she believes that, to address our shame around death and our distance from death, it is crucial that we be "present and engaged," by which we can assume she means present around death; allowing proximity and intimacy with it, and engaged in the process involved with death and mourning. These interpretations are supported by the passage that follows the above quote, which describes Japanese, Spanish, and Mexican families being present and engaged with death in their mourning. From the Mexican families and their ofrendas to the compost piles in Worth Carolina in which some people have elected to be...

Some may want to grieve. Some may not want to feel okay about the fact that their loved one had died. After all, if it is someone whom you loved deeply, getting over their death won't be easy. In fact, one may never get over a loved one's death, and that's okay. One may move on without accepting, just like accepting without moving on. It may just be something that they just wold have to live with, which is okay. We are taught to be emotional; to love and to care about things/people. Our hearts will ache and we may physically be in pain at times of sadness because of a loss, but that is okay. It means we have feelings. We should be feeling upset and angry because that is just a natural response a human would make. A topic we just briefly touched on was the responses that we receive while our loved ones die. While one is accepting death, there are certain things we don't want to hear. A controversial phrase is "They're in a better place now". Many believ...

All of us as people will experience loss many times in our lives.  Whether it is the death of a family member, a friend, or even someone we were never really close to.  All of us will grieve for these people in some way or another and all of us will find a way to keep on living, but these losses that we all will experience in our lives will shape the very fabric on which we view the world. Coming to accept the death of a loved one or even someone you do not particularly hold dear is part of life and always has been.  The idea that is difficult to grapple with for many however is the notion that we have to move on and get on with our lives.  While accepting and coming to terms with the passing of those close to us is necessary, nobody really moves on.  Getting over grief is what helps people try and let go of their sadness, but truly accepting the passing of another is a growing experience that will have forever impacted your life.  You will not be sad fore...

Worldwide, death is thought to be terrifying, it is a time in which we lose someone or something dear to us. Whether it’s a cinematic scene, pet, friend or a relative. Death is there and will always be there and it is something we will all have to deal with. It is heartbreaking, depressing and even life changing but it can also be urged that it is a time in which we rejoice and celebrate someone’s life because of the impact they had on their community. Therefore, eulogies are held at funerals to lighten up the mood, giving a sense of optimism and instead of mourning the loss of someone we celebrate them for who they are and giving them a proper farewell. Death should not be feared, death is a moment of peace and tranquility, all your worries are finally gone, and all the burdens of life are gone. Although you will fear what is to come next, and what will happen to your loved ones once you’re gone, you should come to the realization that you have completed your purpose on earth and th...

January 18th, 2019 Should We Fear Death? Death is something that is feared by many people, cross-culturally and multi-denominationally; the moment when we pass on into death is feared, and some people even fear what will become of them when they die. Many question the possibility of an afterlife. Is an afterlife real? Should we fear death? The stance that I take on this topic is that there is no reason why humans should fear death because we have been given no scientific proof of an afterlife, and because we, as humans, should not place the responsibility upon ourselves to try to prove something given that we have negative evidence to go off and no known way to prove the existence of an afterlife. If there were a way for us to try to prove the existence of an afterlife, we could pursue it, but we have not yet reached this scientific level. On the other hand, fear is something that affects us presently, it is an emotion that can be debilitating: Fear prevents us from focusing on...

Death.  The final chapter.  The bitter reality in every man and woman's life that always seems too far away to even think about.  Regardless of who you are, be you young, old, rich, or poor, death will catch up to all of us in the end.  But why is it that death is so little talked about?  Why is it that one of the only certainties in every person's life is such a taboo subject?  Perhaps it is because nobody wants to come to terms with the sad truth that nothing anybody does can stop it from happening.  But what if this sad notion is not such a bad thing? Everything we do as people in our lives is based on the fact that we only have a limited time to get through everything expected out of a fulfilling life, so why does the fact that this routine ends scare us all so much?  Yes, it is a terrifying notion that one day we could be here and the next day we could be gone, but what would really be the point of living if we never ran out of time?  E...

Why do we cry? Is it because of a death in the family? Death of a friend? Or maybe there wasn't even a death, you could be going through a break-up, or your roommate eats some of your Oreos and all they have to justify that heinous crime is say "My bad". Regardless of your reason, most of the time we cry when we are grieving, we're in pain. One of the top things we grieve is because of death. Death is chasing us all and at some point in all of our lives Death will prevail and it hits some closer than others. We all also deal with grieving differently. Some push people away and keep to themselves feeling that being alone is their best way to deal with the grief, we may cry in these times as well and others call out for help. There is no correct way to grieve but if anything it's alright to cry. Crying is a way of release and from personal experience it is one of the best ways to release. There is a lot of death in my family. Funerals are practically family reunio...

One of the questions our class came up with from Lincoln in The Bardo that I didn't think we got to talk enough about was how we live knowing that everything we love will eventually no longer be here. I was used to talking about the idea of my own death already because of our first few classes, but this question made look at death from a slightly different perspective. It's already uncomfortable for people to think about their own death, but living life without people or things that mean the most to me one day is another difficult idea to think about. I think there are a couple of reasons as to why we are able to continue our lives knowing that they are bound to end one day. The first reason being slightly more obvious, we are naturally scared of what we don't know a lot about and what could possibly come after death is completely uncertain. So, we try not to think about death as an optimistic reflex. I also think that all the questions we have death are part of what fuels ...

Most of us have probably attended a funeral at some point in our lives whether it was a close family member, or just someone you knew.  You tend to see some people crying and grieving the loss of their loved one.  I have always considered funerals to be a sad time and a sad day.   To take away from some of the sadness of funerals, people call funerals "A celebration of their life."  That flips the whole idea of the sadness and mourning that goes on in funerals if we are all suppose to be celebrating their life instead.  Even when we are celebrating the life of someone we lost, people were still mourning.  When someone makes the effort to call it a celebration of life to make it more happy and less sad then you would think that people would not be mourning, but celebrating this persons life.  I do not think I could ever go to a funeral and celebrate and be happy.  This is more aimed at elderly people that have lived and long and full life....

   Death is a very hard topic to speak about. Whether it is where the dead go or how we should live life after a loved one has passed, it is quite difficult to think about. Even though there are individuals that can move on with their life, as if nothing ever happened. It takes time to fully accept that a loved one has passed away, because not everyone mourns the same way. Some people take longer than others and mourning is the expression of deep sorrow for someone who has died, typically involving following certain conventions such as wearing black clothes.          In the novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" it shows how grieving is a grueling process. In chapter nineteen, Lincoln realizes that the death of his son, Willie is irreversible. He now accepts the fact that his son has died. Lincoln coped with the death by taking his son out of his "sick-box" and cradling him for ten minutes straight.        It takes time to ...

In life we come across choices that rely on thoughts or answers. Typically, these thoughts and answers are classified as positive or negative thoughts. Only recently have I been fixated on the topic of negative and positive ways to view death. Naturally, it can be easy to focus on the negative , especially when confronted with the topic of death. This can result in the thoughts of creating anxiety out of the unknown, being concerned about how loved ones will react, the fear of not doing enough, and the paralyzing thought of being stuck with a commitment. Though the negative thoughts are valid, why do people not think about the tragedy of death in a positive light? Being on the positive side of being aware of death can result in the mindset of closure. Closure that everyone, no matter how their life compared to yours, will die. Positive thoughts of death lead to fearless humans with no limits. There's less worrying about what will happen, less concern about what others think...