d-e-a-t-h

Some possible philosophies of death and dying:

1. Death is an interruption to life, like sleep or disease, only permanent. Life is to be lived in spite of it. It is the end of our projects, an interference with them, not something to be integrated. This would be the case for both ourselves and those we love.

Two attitudes are then possible: (a) ignore it, and live life in spite of it; or

(b) rebellion: "rage, rage, rage, against the dying of the light" (Dylan Thomas). Cf., in D. Hawe's notes, Sartre p. 3, Pascal, Nietzsche and Epicurus, p. 6, for the first; and Camus, p. 7 for the second.



2. Death or rather dying ought to be considered, rather as the culminating act of life, in which a person expresses who s/he is, what they stand for, what his/her life is all about. This might happen in two ways:

2(a) via the circumstances of the death or by the manner of dying or both: an external and internal expression of what their life is all about. E.g. Jesus, Socrates, the martyrs.

2(b) Whatever about the outer circumstances and perceivable manner of death, death provides for all an opportunity for an internal expression of what they are all about, a "final option" ratifying their "fundamental option" or perhaps modifying it, this being part of dying. Cf. K. Rahner, Theology of Death.



3. Death is to be considered as part of life, something which every person has to come to terms with, in order to live well, part of what is involved in accepting our finitude. In Heidegger's language, human being is being-towards-death, this is one of the existentialia of Dasein, one of the structural features of human existence as such, which has to be assumed if we are to live authentically (cf. Heidegger, notes p. 7).[1] Cf. also Lochet in the notes, p. 8: "...no one becomes truly adult unless he assumes and accepts his birth and his death; for to be truly a [human being] one must accept the human condition..."



4. Death is to be considered as a transition from this life to the life that really counts, eternal life.

This latter is usually conceived in terms of a soul surviving the body, via a view in the West going back to Plato; but a kind of immediate resurrection as postulated by Schillebeeckx, David Coffey and others is also conceivable. Whatever, it's the next life that counts, and death is not something to be feared, at least not for those who die in the grace of God. Like a butterfly shedding its cocoon.

(But in traditional religiosity, unfortunately, there is also hell and suchlike, and frequently in the popular imagination and popular preaching in the past most people will end up there --which can sometimes make even 1, which is either agnostic or negative in respect of an afterlife, more acceptable. Cf. Hume, Dialogues XII.)



5. As with 4, but taking away the idea that this life is for the sake of the next one, only some kind of trial, in so far as this tends to devalue this life (= the 'porch' view of life). Eternal life starts here and now, the kingdom of God is already among us. Perhaps more emphasis would be put on bodily resurrection and the final coming of the kingdom, which is a social and cosmic event which affirms and validates our work here and now as well as liberating it.



6. Death is to be considered as a transition from this life eventually to another life of much the same kind, better or worse according to one's deeds (karma): doctrines of re-incarnation. Like 4 above, but not quite so final: we'll get another chance to do it right. This sometimes combines with views like 4: re-incarnation as the wheel of re-birth, final salvation = to get off the wheel of rebirth.


Source:http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gjmoses/DEATH.htm