Understanding Death: Philosophical Perspectives and Human Experience
The Question of Death
Death is defined by its relationship to life. It’s usually understood as the end of life, the cessation of living activities. This is a negative definition, and it depends on how we understand life itself.
The Biological Concept of Life
There is no single, clear definition of life, as it is a complex phenomenon. Monod, from a philosophical point of view, defined living beings as objects endowed with a project and having teleonomy (from the Greek telos, meaning ‘order,’ and nomos, meaning ‘standard’), i.e., a purpose and standards. Living beings have the capacity to develop themselves through autonomous morphogenesis. They also have reproductive invariance, transmitting information without alterations.
The Philosophical Concept of Life
Ancient Greek thinkers understood that, in addition to plant or animal life, there is a kind of life that is the way of being human: the moral life.
From the 19th century onward, a line of thought developed that emphasized the importance of life as an object of philosophical study.
Ortega y Gasset developed a vitalist philosophy in which to live is to be in the world, and to live humanly is to feel alive. Life is the essential reality of human beings, and it is a choice that has to be built.
Death as a Human Phenomenon
Dying is something that happens to all people, but death only has real meaning when it comes to people because those who are alive know that they are going to die.
Death and Philosophy
Plato and other philosophers, such as Cicero, established a relationship between death and philosophy, arguing that philosophy is a preparation for death because it ensures that we live our lives fully and are better prepared for death.
Experience of Death
We cannot experience our own death. Epicurus asserted that while we are alive, death is not present, and when death exists, we are no longer. Kant argued that we cannot even think about our own death. We cannot have knowledge of one’s own death or the death of others.
The Definition of Death as a Human Being
Existentialism is a philosophical current that reflects on death. It tells us that the most characteristic aspect of human beings is to be found in their existence because essence is to exist. The first thing people do is exist, and later, as a function of the way we live, we gain an essence. For Heidegger, death reveals human existence and the way of life that is affected by finitude. That we are finite beings means that our power is limited to historical settings. Death is not only the end of existence but also a human property of existence; man is a being for death. Sartre, however, thought that death separates you from finitude, though humans were immortal, they would still be finite. For Sartre, finitude demonstrates the liberty of human existence because, as we are finite, we must make real choices. Sartre holds that being means making choices because the human being is freedom.
The Meaning of Death and Transcendence
Depending on how we understand humans, death will have different meanings. There are two main positions: monism and dualism.
Monism
Monism is a philosophical position that argues that there is no composition in human reality. Several types can be distinguished:
- Pantheism says that death is the dissolution of individuality in the universal cosmos. Hegel and Spinoza defended this idea, although with differences between them.
- Materialistic Monism denies that there is a non-material dimension to human existence, so death becomes the absolute limit of existence.
Dualism
Dualism takes many forms, but all argue that the human being is composed of two types of material: a body and a spiritual soul. This theory sees death as the separation of these two components. Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, along with some religions, advocate this position. Among the positions that defend dualism about mind and body, some argue that they can only exist while they are together, while others argue that they exist together, and still others defend the existence of the disembodied soul. These last understand death as a transition from one life form to another. Plato, Descartes, and religions understand death as access to transcendence. There are different ways of thinking about what happens to the soul separated from the body; some think they can achieve ultimate happiness, while others think that the soul is embodied in different bodies.