Philosophical Reflection on Human

Weirob states that the soul is defined as something immaterial, something that cannot be seen, felt, touched, or smelt. The body is a material; it can be felt, touched, seen. It is like a vessel that holds the invisible soul. We can never observe the soul. Weirob refuses to acknowledge the fact that people are identical to souls which is a serious problem. Although there is an intentional fallacy to his argument because we cannot see or sense a soul if it is around, then we can never justify the claim that souls are correlated with bodies. The body maybe at some point related to the soul, one may exhibit some characteristics that indicate that a soul exists. Gretchen’s argues by saying he does not have a soul and can establish its correlation between soul and body. “Either you really do not know the person before you now is Gretchen Weirob, the very same person you lunched with at Dorsey’s, or what you do know has nothing to do with sameness of some immaterial soul” (Perry 10). We cannot be sure that a body is not getting a different soul every few minutes.

One thing is absolutely in life, death. No matter what goes on in life, one will eventually take their last breath and die. After a person dies many, religions discuss what happens to the soul, but what about the body? The question becomes what happens to the body after it decomposes? Science and research have advanced into the 21st century and made it possible to figure out step by step what happens to the body.

The philosophical question being asked already introduces the finitude of human existence, since, according to Martin Heidegger human beings, as Da-sein, exist “as thrown being(s)-toward-its-end,”1 recognizing death is recognized as a possibility of Da-sein. However, it is important to define death in Heidegger’s context because he establishes the idea that death is a reality that we, as human beings, encounter as a possibility of being. As such, the relation between death and authentic existence must also be clarified, so as to fully understand what it truly means to be Da-sein.

The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far – reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).

Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.

Given that the soul outlives its host body, it must have somewhere to go once the body dies.

When someone dies, people assume that the purpose for that life dies as well. But this is not true. Mary Roach expresses in her book “Stiff” that once one’s life ends, their potential for usefulness does not. Death simply means the passing away of an organism. And as Mary Roach explains it, “Death. It doesn’t have to be boring.” (Page 11, Roach)

As stated before, when the body dies the soul dies as well. Lucretius follows this by providing evidence to support this claim. He first affirms that “[the soul] is made up of exceedingly fine particles” which explains why, despite the physical nature of the soul, “when the whole soul has now left the entire body, / still the external configuration of the limbs / preserves itself unchanged and not a speck of weight is lost” (3.68; 3.215-217).

The idea of the soul varies widely in religious tradition. While these variations exist, its basic definition is unvarying. The soul can be described as the ultimate internal principle by which we think, feel, and will, and by which our bodies are animated. The soul is seen as the core principle of life or as the essence of a being 1. Views on the permanence of the soul vary throughout religious tradition as well. While some view it as a mortal entity in flux others believe the soul is an immortal and permanent unit. These interpretations vary from time period to time period and between religions. These characteristics of the soul are interpreted differently through an Eastern or

that if X can be without Y then X and Y are distinct. This view that a

Encarta Dictionary says that Humanism is a system of thought that centers on human beings and their values, capacities and worth. Encarta also goes on the say that, in philosophy, humanism is an attitude that emphasizes the dignity and worth of an individual. A basic premise of humanism is that people are rational beings who possess within themselves the capacity for truth and goodness. I see myself as a being a humanist through everyday life. I always try to see the good in a person when he/she makes me angry or sad, and say I to myself that maybe that person has had a bad day and living life is difficult at the moment. Socrates was even an early humanist of sorts. He can be quoted as saying, "to know the good is to do the

The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life

Through out history, as man progressed from a primitive animal to a "human being" capable of thought and reason, mankind has had to throw questions about the meaning of our own existence to ourselves. Out of those trail of thoughts appeared religion, art, and philosophy, the fundamental process of questioning about existence. Who we are, how we came to be, where we are going, what the most ideal state is....... All these questions had to be asked and if not given a definite answer, then at least given some idea as to how to begin to search for, as humans probed deeper and deeper into the riddle that we were all born into.

Many different religions around the world see the importance in life after death but these beliefs do vary a lot and each religion will believe completely different things. Two core religions in this essay that will be looked into are Islamic and Catholic. What do they believe will happen when someone dies? Is there another life after they die? Heaven? Hell? Or Paradise? Through this you will the importance in the belief of life after death, and the practices, rituals, and prayers that provide evidence and physical proof of how they show this belief. Then to go onto to discuss the wider implications holding onto these beliefs can have.

Since philosophers don’t fear death and believe that the soul is the most important, Plato says that the soul is immortal and has has existed before our birth. “For if the soul existed before birth, and in coming life and being born can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death exist, since she has to be born again? Surely the proof which you desire has been already furnished” (Plato 55). This quote explains how our soul has lived for many years and what happens to our soul from the result of our death. Plato says that our soul could have lived inside other bodies during its many lives, such as animals or other people. If your soul has lived a previous life before being inside your body like Plato explains, it makes you wonder what other lives our soul has gone through before our own. This is pretty interesting to think that once you die, your soul will live on, your body is just another life or stop, for your soul to gain even more experiences and wisdom. Plato explains that the soul is the most important, and that the body is just another obstacle for your soul to go through.