Mortality is an interesting topic of discussion. Defined as “the state of being subject to death,” it is something that arguably all living things have to face due to their sheer existence. The moment we are brought into this world we are given the great gift of life – and its feared counterpart, death. To this day there seems to be no way of escaping it, and is often referred to as one of the only two certainties in life by revered leaders and philosophers alike. “Tis impossible to be sure of any thing, but Death and Taxes,” Christopher Bullock wrote in his book, The Cobbler of Preston, back in 1716. The sentiment has been echoed through many since, such as by President Benjamin Franklin in 1789 and author Edward Ward in 1724. But even those …show more content…
One can argue that human creations too have a sense of mortality, due to the fact that they can go from a state of functioning to a state of being broken, and that many of our creations have a so-called “lifecycle” embedded into them. Many of our creations – such as the machines, computers and programs they run – are often characterized by the two states of being functional and non-functional. In many ways, these two states mirror the mortality we are subject to as living creatures. When we are living, we are functional. Our hearts beat and pump blood through our veins, our limbs and extremities serve us to the best of their ability, and our minds operate as they do. When we are dead, our physical bodies are non-functional, therefore lifeless. When a machine is functional, it does its designed tasks. When it is broken, it cannot complete its designed tasks. But can we call it dead? Does it have true mortality? Modern day philosopher Shelly Kagan would say no, and make the argument that our thought process so far is overlooking a crucial missing puzzle piece. Stating, “no mere machine can feel pain, see red, or feel joy. Machines can do the behavioral stuff, but no merely physical object can have this qualitative aspect of experience. But we have it. So we are no mere physical objects. We are no mere machines.” To Kagan, the qualitative aspects define our
It is inevitable that we will all die it is a fact that everyone must come to terms with. There comes a time in everyone’s life that they must face death; a friend’s tragic accident, a family member’s passing or their own battles with diseases. When faced with the idea of death people will act in different ways some may find it therapeutic to apologize for the negative they have done, some may want to spend time with loved ones to ease the future pain, and others may decide that their life was not what they believed. The story Death Constant Beyond Love tells us about a man named Senator Sanchez who is living a happy life with his wife and five kids. That is until he is told by doctors that he only has a short time to live. Death is
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.
That’s the thing about death: it sneaks up and robs a person of their life, taking away all of their happiness. People indulge themselves in the idea of fearing death rather than facing it. Death is an unknown territory where no survivors have ever came back to share their experience. The US Army Private, Roy Scranton’s article “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene” shines hope where he explains how fear can be conquered if the idea of dying is accepted. It is fear that paralyzes people from moving toward the idea of death. If people started to embrace the present, they will understand the inevitability of death and start discrediting fear.
You’ve probably heard the old saying. “Only two things in life are certain: death and taxes” It’s true: at some point, we all will die. Although you may think death is an unpleasant subject, it is something that everybody must cope with. People are different all over the world, but death is one thing that everyone has in common. ( Stair, choosing a career in mortuary science and the funeral industry 6)
Death is one of the most avoided topics because of the finality that comes with it and the fear of the unknown after death. However, there are quite a number of authors such as AtulGawande, Elisabeth Kubler-ross and Ira Byock who have attempted to go ahead and deal with death as a topic and other connected topics.Each of these authors have delved into one of the most revered topics that is death including related topics that come with it such as the dying process itself. Ira Byock’s Dying well: Peace and possibilities at the end of life is a book that looks at the moment prior to death when an individual is terminally sick and is at the point of death. A
People die everyday all over the world. In United States, people use hundreds of different words to describe death. Generally, people that grow up in the United States tend to view death as a taboo subject and are seen as a topic that should be kept behind closed doors and contracted with an individual or family. A belief system that so many individuals hold to be true has been shaped over the past century. In this culture, death has become something that is enormously feared and as a result, some people stop living their lives to his or her highest potential because of their fear of dying. The effect that death has pertains to individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicities. But unfortunately, how death is viewed it has become more and
Although the author and I agree that the life expectancy has greatly increased in the past 1000 years and medicine has changed, our old ways of viewing death have not. The author discusses how death is perceived, in which she concludes, “Therefore death in itself is associated with a bad act, a frightening happening, something that in itself calls for retribution and punishment”(220). Kubler-Ross analyzed how people viewed death and determined that it is never depicted positively in most circumstances. She felt people never found peace with death itself, typically finding something to blame to make death seem
When people hear the word “forensics” it evokes a mindful of graphic, vibrant images that bring about death and crime. It’s a trigger word that reminds people of gore, autopsies, DNA, death investigations, and bullet holes. This word means so much more than just those few examples of what forensics hold. Forensics is such a broad term- it is “scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection of a crime”, so with that given definition forensics could mean many different things. You could go from someone who works as the forensic computer technician who can hack into a sexual predator’s hard drive in the matter of seconds to a forensic anthropologist who studies bones in a legal case. All though there
Death is an inevitable fate for all living beings. It’s an aspect of life that can be hard to deal with, and the ability to overcome the fear of this unavoidable event can be difficult when it comes to knowing the reality of your fate in an
saying and feel it to be true. One such woman, author Elisabeth, wrote “On the fear of death,” published in 1969 in the the Norton Reader, and she argues on how death make as feel and the customs which has change because of our sciences and technology toward the end of the article. After l lost my grandmother to death, I have been curious to know, if there’s really life after death? We live life every day to improve our future. It is suggested for us to embrace death. We must realize the opportunity we are given by being alive now so we become less exposed and less vulnerable for a down fall. It normal if we have our fears; however, it’s our decision to bring death on with open arms or just abscond ourselves from the thought of it. Why try this battle we ultimately have no control over? Rather we should try to accomplish something important before our death and that’s what I care about now. I realized a lot of people are on their dying beds regretting what they did with their lives and have no way of going back and changing it. I want to live a life I won’t regret 60years to come. Better child care and education has affected a low morbidity and mortality among children. The number of old people is on the rise, and with this fact come the number of people with malignancies and chronic diseases associated more with old (Kubler-Rose 1).The many diseases that have been taking toll among the young has been conquered. I want to live an exciting life full of adventures and accomplishments as much as I can. Some adventures could be very scary and challenging but I would still love to try them before dying, and travel around the world to explore and learn new cultures.
Since its earliest days, mankind has unceasingly pondered mortality and the frailty of human life. Death has often been regarded as a mysterious and inevitable force of nature. As such, the idea of death is a recurring theme throughout the periods of historical art.
From 1950 to 1964, the mortality and morbidity rates had declined. Most deaths were contributed to perinatal causes. Most newborn babies were at high risk specially the preterm babies. The speedy downturn in infant mortality and morbidity before the late 1950s was because of the postneonatal deaths that were influenced by the low birth weight babies. During the 1950-1960s they had inadequate programs to help the death of newborns. They also wanted to advance access for those mothers who were carrying babies, and to improve research. This included them doing research for new technology to help improve the survival of the low birth weight babies. In the late 1960s, several federal programs were achieved for infant
Mortality is the state of being subject to death, and, as we all know and can only accept, we are all mortal, and so is our material world. Everything that has a beginning has an end. We are the same as the men of Troy and Achaea in the sense that we’re all bound to die; our glass houses and skyscrapers now are just as subject to destruction as their ruined walls and buried cities. Death is inevitable, just like change is. Even though sometimes, such as when one is young and wild or when one is simply very well off and comfortable, we feel invincible and unsusceptible to death, we are. We are impermanent and we will be forgotten – that is, unless we make sure that we live to be remembered.
As human beings, we are unique in our awareness of death. “We know that we will die, and that knowledge invades our consciousness…it will not let us rest until we have found ways, through rituals and stories, theologies and philosophies, either to make sense of death, or, failing that, to make sense of ourselves in the face of death.”
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