Death & Philosophy

Description

Death as a topic has preoccupied philosophers since Greek times. For some, the inevitability of death gives our lives meaning, for others, death makes life meaningless. This collection brings together different philosophical, literary and aesthetic perspectives on death, including one account of a “near-death experience”.

How should we understand the relation between death and human life? Would a life without death be worth living? Is the effect of death to render life nothing but an absurd show, or might the absurdity of life in the face of death itself provide a source of meaning? What is the meaning of “life after death”? These questions are at the heart of this collection. The approaches vary from the existentialist-deriving from Camus, Heidegger or Sartre-to the English speaking analytic tradition of Bernard Williams or Thomas Nagel; to non-Western approaches such as are exemplified in the Tibetan Book of the Dead and in Daoist thought; to perspectives influenced by Lucretius, Epicurus and Nietzsche.

Death and Philosophy will be of great interest to philosophers, or those studying religion and theology, but its clarity and scope ensures it will be accessible to anyone who has considered what it means to be mortal.