Philosophy of Life and Death: Key Concepts
Philosophical Concept of Life (Biographical)
Since the ancient Greeks used the term ‘life’ to encompass more extensive physical activities, including plant and animal life, there exists a distinct human way of being, namely, practical or moral life. From the 18th century onward, life has been highlighted as a case study in philosophy. For Ortega y Gasset, living is being found in the world, existing within a circumstance. Human life is not merely a thing in the world; it is known through living humanely. Life is the primary reality in which we, as human beings, exist. Ortega insists that life is choice, lacking a pre-determined nature or finished being. Life is self-made according to its own agenda, possessing a constitutive dimension of historical or biographical context.
Death as a Human Phenomenon
Death is an event that happens to all living beings; however, it only has full meaning when referring to the end of human life. Only humans know that they will die.
Death and Philosophy
Plato, Cicero, and Schopenhauer framed philosophy as a preparation for death. Philosophy helps human beings to fully live our lives; therefore, the more fully we live, the more humanity confronts death.
Experience of Death
Death is an event that happens to us, but we cannot live through it. Kant believed that we could not even think about our own death without incurring a contradiction: “I am death,” for example. We do not have direct experience of our own death, nor can we have concrete knowledge of it, even through the death of others.
The Other’s Death as a Human Definition
In the twentieth century, existentialism reflected significantly on death. This trend argues that the peculiar and characteristic nature of the human being is not to be sought by investigating its essence, but rather by reflecting on its existence.
The essence is to exist: first, we exist, and then, as has been our life, we gain an essence.
According to Heidegger, death reveals that the human being is a finite being, meaning that we have limits, especially with respect to time. For him, death is not simply the end of time of existence, but is a property of the human mode of being: the human being is a being for death. Jean Paul Sartre, by contrast, separates death from finitude. Even if we were immortal, we would remain finite. For him, the finitude of human being expresses freedom. Life is a continuous choice; therefore, “being means chosen” because “the human being is freedom.”
The essence is to exist: first exist and then, as has been our life, we acquire an essence. According to Heidegger, death reveals that the human being is a finite being, i.e., that we have limits, especially with respect to time. For him, death is not simply the end of time of existence, but is a property of the human mode of being: the human being is a being for death. Jean Paul Sartre, by contrast, separates death from finitude. Even if we were immortal, we would remain finite. For him, the finitude of human being expresses freedom. Life is a continuous choice; therefore, “being means chosen” because “the human being is freedom.”
Meaning of Death and Transcendence
The significance of death will differ based on how we understand the human being:
Monism
A philosophical position that argues that there is no composition in human reality.
Pantheism
Death is the dissolution of individuality in the universality of the cosmos. Hegel and Spinoza were proponents of this idea.
Materialist Monism
Denies the existence of any other non-material dimension to human existence. Death is the absolute limit of existence.
Dualism
Defends the idea that the human being is composed of two types of reality: a material one (body) and a spiritual one (soul). It conceives death as the separation of these two components, the separation of soul and body. Some dualists, like Aristotle, argued that the body and soul cannot live apart, and death is the end of both. Other philosophers, like Descartes and Plato, and religions understand death as a transit and hold that the soul can live separately from the body. In this way, death is access to transcendence, the transition from a life composed of soul and body to a soul-full life.