The Certainty of Death and Confronting It

14.10.2023

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The Certainty of Death and Confronting It

We Are All Going to Die

Among all living things, we humans are the only ones who are aware of our death. This awareness can often make us anxious, we then try to overcome death by keeping it out of sight or denying it. We object to the modest share that life allocates to us.

This essay will discuss whether there is a soul that continues to exist after death and, if so, whether it is eternal. In addition, some strategies developed by humans to overcome death will be discussed, and why these strategies do not work will be explained through the way phenomenology deals with death.

Is There Such a Thing as a Soul?

What happens to humans after they die has been debated since ancient times. Two important views stand out in these discussions. First, according to the physicalist view, people consist only of bodies and cease to exist when death comes. According to the dualist view, on the other hand, humans consist of both soul and body. Consequently, the dualist view raises many questions: If there is a soul, how can we know that it does not die with the death of the body? Even if the soul continues to exist after the body dies, does it exist eternally or die eventually?

Dualism

Plato and Descartes are dualist philosophers who answered these questions with their arguments. Descartes, who can be considered a modern philosopher, argues that body and soul/mind are two separate entities with his argument of Cartesian dualism. Accordingly, if we can imagine a world in which our mind exists separately from our body, this indicates that the body and the mind are two separate entities. The counterargument would be that we could imagine a world in which bananas were living beings, even though they are just a fantasy.

Plato’s Argument on Soul

According to Plato’s argument of recollection, forms/ideas are infinite and non-physical things, such as the number three or justice. If we can comprehend forms/ideas with our minds, then we must be eternal and non-physical beings, for according to Plato, only things that resemble can understand each other. Since our body is mortal and physical, we must have an eternal and non-physical soul to know about ideas/forms. The counterargument is that although harmony is a non-physical form, it can be destroyed when its instrument is destroyed. This means that when the body dies, even if the soul exists, the soul may cease to exist after the body gets destroyed.

Although these discussions can continue by adding many arguments, in the end, the physicalist view, which argues that we consist only of a body and that we cease to exist when our body dies, seems to have generally replaced religions and metaphysical doctrines in the modern era. In this case, we can discuss how someone who knows they will die can confront death.

How to Live in the Face of the Reality of Death?

Epicurus, one of the Western philosophers, argued that there is no death as long as we exist, and when death comes, we no longer exist. Therefore, death should not concern us. According to Epicurean philosophy, a moral life is a life in which pleasures are maximized and misery is minimized. However, this view raises questions such as whose pleasure is more important, or the difficulty of calculating pleasure.

Friedrich Hörderlin believed that if you live like a god only once in your life, death is of no importance. According to him, as a poet, when he feels divine satisfaction from a poem he writes, he does not need anything more. In my opinion, if I move forward by constantly expanding my life circle and pursuing things that are meaningful to me, the power of death over me will diminish, as I will be sure that I am making my life as valuable as I can. So, to me, it is about being constantly on the road instead of a momentary divine satisfaction.

According to Buddhism, on the other hand, life itself is horrible and full of pain. Therefore, giving up everything will minimize the loss and misery. So, if you accept that life is terrible and you have nothing to lose, death loses its negatory meaning.

There is No Escape From Death

Human beings come up with some unconscious strategies to avoid death. A group of social psychology theorists calls this “terror management theory”, based on the ideas in Ernest Becker’s book “The Denial of Death”. Accordingly, the main factor that motivates people is the desire to avoid or escape from the terror of death.

Reproduction is one of these strategies; Some may find comfort in the idea that their genes will continue even if they cease to exist. Producing a piece of work and ensuring it is passed on to future generations is also one of these strategies. The third strategy is to engage in extreme sports. Risking life and looking face to face with death is only about defying death. It is a strategy to reduce the power of death over us. The radical version of this is suicide. It means choosing death with free will in the face of its inevitability. Finally, the desire for fame is one of these strategies. To have your name written down in history is a desire motivated by the fear of absolute extinction. However, it is generally an unsuccessful strategy as famous people surrender to the dictatorship of the public sphere and cease to exist forever when they lose their popularity. Consequently, it can be the most radical form of alienation.

The Singularity

Another strategy to escape death is man’s attempt to find immortality since ancient times. It has continued from the alchemists’ efforts to find the elixir of immortality to transhumanism today. One of the most assertive examples of transhumanism is Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity theory. Accordingly, as technology constantly advances exponentially, humans will upload their consciousness to machines and achieve immortality by 2045.

How Are We to Confront Death?

In her book “How are we to confront death?” Françoise Dastur says that these strategies are merely childish ideologies. She defends phenomenological philosophy and argues that death is the most fundamental feature of being human. She argues that instead of seeing death as a restriction, we should see it as a condition of being born and being alive and accept it as an opportunity. Heidegger’s concept of “Dasein” also states that humans are “beings towards death”. That is, the condition of being human is to be mortal.

Death and Culture

Our first experience of death is mourning the death of someone else. The death that happens to others seems as if it will never happen to us. Surely, this is just the subconscious denial of death.

Burying the dead with magnificent funeral ceremonies provides solace to the relatives of the deceased. Additionally, since the body of the deceased decays, funerals and graves enable the establishment of a new relationship and bond with the deceased. Moreover, funeral ceremonies played a significant role in the emergence of culture as gathering for the deceased helps to continue traditions. Today, mourning practices have become individualized due to modern culture suppressing death and everything that reminds it of death. Therefore, finding consolation against death has become much more challenging.

Final Thoughts

We may never be sure whether we have a soul that will continue to exist after death or that humanity can achieve immortality. Yet, some philosophical ideas such as phenomenology, epicureanism, and Buddhism can provide clues about how to accept the certainty of death and confront it. As someone who tends to be romantic; when some place or someone inspires me so much that it keeps me up all night, when I am in love, when I long for a memory, when I experience deep bliss or blues, I get the idea that we can exist beyond our material entity.

References

Becker E (1997) The denial of death. New York: Free Press
Dastur F (2012) How are we to confront death? New York: Fordham University Press.
Diano C Doctrine of Epicurus. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epicureanism/The-Epicurean-school
Maslin J (2005, October 3) Will the future be a trillion times better? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/books/will-the-future-be-a-trillion-times-better.html
Shelly Kagan (2008, September 30) Philosophy of death: YaleCourses. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2J7wSuFRl8