Death, Mortality & Immortality

Death, Mortality & Immortality

Introduction

Philosophers have found the theme of death and mortality as one of the most appealing topic of their interests. Death is a reality of nature. Every living has to come to an end. The concept of mortality and immortality cater the true meaning of life for an individual. Since the beginning of life on earth, the mankind has searched for the quest of immortality. Any element or idea that can explain the non-literal context of death is important for wanderers of truth. Many explanations have been established to understand the context of death and mortality. To some death is the end of life in spiritual and physiological terms. For others, death merely means a transition from one state “of being” to another state. The philosophy of death is explained through social and religious perspectives. Mankind finds the “fear of non-existence” as a truth that may be terrifying to most of us.

In this paper, we examine the philosophy of death and immortality in the light of scholarly sources. The write up elaborates how I intend to die and my opinions over the concept.

Discussion

Death is when a heart stops beating

“While I thought I was learning how to live, I was learning how to die”, Leonardo Da Vinci (Christian, p.602).

Christian adopts varying perspectives in order to explain his philosophy of death and immortality. He emphasizes that attributing “death” to “clinical death” of a person is obsolete criteria to define death. As now, medical science can maintain the physiological process of the human body running. A heart can live through artificial means for months or years. He makes it a point that how do we know if the person was alive or dead when the machines kept his heart running. These questions bother a human mind and require an explanation from a non physiological perspective. The idea of death drives and frames the human activities in this world. The fear of non-existence serves as a driving source that shapes our daily life and routines. Death is the prime source of inspiration for philosophy (Hobbs, 2009).

Dealing the fear of Non-existence

The fear of non-existence is what makes us fearful about our own death. There is a need to differentiate between the fear of non-existence and the fear of un-known. The religious association provides means for a person to cope up with the fears of his life. Especially, the context of death is different in different religions (Guven, 2005). Christian explains that all of us have experienced the state of “non-existence” and that it is not new to mankind. Humans hesitate to face the reality of non-existence that comes to them in the form of death. It is because we forgot that we did not exist before we were born (Christian, 2009).

The views of Greek Philosophers, Jews & Christians

An individual is made up of two entities; Soul & Body. They believe that the body is less important than the soul. Soul or spirit is an important entity that drives the physical ...