Philosophy, death. --- .This section is about death. Topics include: ( ) Suicide. --- 1/24/2006
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Death and metaphysics. What does it mean to die? (2) Death and ethics. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Death is the big issue. Loss of your life and loss of ones you love. (2) Against death there is only the creation of life. Sex and raising kids. And the glue that holds us together, love and civility. --- 9/30/1996
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Death of bad = good. (2) Death of good = bad. (3) Birth of bad = bad. (4) Birth of good = good. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Ethics of death: How should we die? How should we treat the dying? (2) Metaphysics of death: Can we delay death by increasing life span? Can we become immortal and live forever? (Ex. by creating an audio/video diary web page of our lives. Or by writing and other works.) --- 1/1/2002
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Metaphysical questions. (A) When does something qualify as being alive? Birth, growth, death. Reproduction. Feeling, thinking, communicating. Killing humans, killing animals, killing plants, killing robots. Only living things can die. (B) When does death occur? Heart stopping, breathing stopping, brain waves stopping. (C) What happens after death? Is their an after life? (2) Ethical questions. (A) When is killing others justified? Self-defense. When third party lives are immediately and directly at risk. Euthanasia and abortion. (B) When is killing oneself justified? Old age. Extreme pain with no hope of recovery. Murderous impulses. Burden on society. Going crazy. --- 5/15/1998
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Metaphysics of death: Death as nothingness. Death as void. To cease to be. (2) Psychology of death: People fear death. People grieve the deaths of others. People have a survival instinct. (3) Death practices: Funerals. Burials. Wakes. Cremations. Cemeteries. (4) Religion and death: Religions evolved to manage the fear and grief associated with death. (5) Destruction as the "death" of an inanimate object. (6) Time passing is like slow death. Humans are mortal. People die. --- 6/12/2005
Philosophy, death. --- (1) Slow death: ex. asbestos poisoning. (2) Slow suicide: ex. drinking. --- 4/29/2001
Philosophy, death. --- Against death and destruction there is the creation of ideas. --- 6/12/2005
Philosophy, death. --- Bad deaths: (1) Premature death. (2) Avoidable death. --- 4/29/2001
Philosophy, death. --- Birth: we did not choose to be born. We did not choose when, where, or to who to be born. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Bull fighting is cruelty to animals and should be outlawed along with cock fighting, dog fighting, cat torture, bear baiting, etc. --- 10/27/2004
Philosophy, death. --- Death = loss. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Death is horrible. Death is ugly. Death sucks. All those who say "Death is beautiful. Death is a part of life. Death is peace. Etc.", they are all just trying to make themselves feel better by denying the actuality of death. --- 4/4/1999
Philosophy, death. --- Death of a situation, environment, or relationship. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Death of an idea. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Death terms: Genocide. Extinction. Murder. Culture-cide (ex. Communists outlawed Buddhist culture). Suicide. Euthanasia. Infanticide. Killing girl children. --- 1/1/2002
Philosophy, death. --- Death variables. Going slowly vs. quickly. With much pain vs. little pain. Peacefully vs. struggling and unaccepting (sadness and anger). Loosing your marbles vs. retaining your senses till the end. --- 05/30/1993
Philosophy, death. --- Death: quick vs. slow. Painless vs. painful. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Death. (1) Existence vs. non- existence. (2) Being vs. non-being. (3) Something vs. nothing. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Death's relationship to (1) Psychology: unconscious fear of death or love of death. (2) Sociology: social norms concerning death. (3) Biology: medical definitions of death. (4) Environment: burial plots a waste of space. (5) Religion: various religious views on death. (6) Economics: funeral industry. (7) Tech: ways to avoid death. (8) Art: death as a subject of artistic works. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Dying all the time. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Effects of death and dying on us: seeing it, doing it. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Epistemology of death: Is it dead or alive? --- 6/8/2004
Philosophy, death. --- Ethics and death. How to die? When to die? Where to die? Who should die? --- 11/12/2005
Philosophy, death. --- Everything dies. Somethings are not easily replaceable. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Face up to death completely (intellectually and emotionally), all the time. It changes viewpoints and priorities. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Facing death changes your viewpoint about life. Facing it in thought, and facing it in experience. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Facing death. Certain types of pursuits and experiences cause us to confront death more than we would otherwise. Thus, these experiences are profound and healthy. Ex. climbing, racing cars, bull fighting. (Bullfighting is not healthy for bulls. 10/2004) --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Facing up to death, completely, in all its aspects, with the entire psyche, is the ultimate realization, and something that so few of us do. Soldiers in war do it. They have seen it, been in it, and felt it. Most other people repress thoughts about death till they are old. There is a difference between a momentary, acute scare of death, and a chronic threat of death. Acknowledgment of death changes viewpoint. Things seem to become so much more desperate and important. The "why" question(s) comes up. --- 12/24/1988
Philosophy, death. --- Funerary industry. (1) Cemeteries are a waste of land. Given enough time, there will be more land devoted to cemeteries for the dead than there is land devoted to parks for the living, and that is a bad situation. (2) Huge tombstones are a waste. (3) Embalming turns a corpse into a chemical dump. Do not embalm. A person has a right to an ecological death. A person has a right to not look picture perfect if they are dead. (3) Elaborate, expensive funerals are a waste. Expensive, non-biodegradable coffins are a waste. Inexpensive biodegradable coffins are the way to go. (4) The current American funerary industry is based in part on making money off of grieving people, because grieving people rarely argue about the price of a funeral. (5) The current American funerary industry is based in part on making money off of people's social and psychological insecurities. People want to think themselves important so they spend a lot on funerals. People want to appear important to others so they spend a lot on funerals. --- 8/31/2005
Philosophy, death. --- Funerary practices. An argument against modern funerals. Modern burial is baloney. $1000 for coffin, $5000 for plot, $1000 for embalming, wake, funeral ceremony, and burial ceremony. It uses up land and other resources for nothing. There are better (and cheaper) ways to show respect for human life, which is what they are doing, they are not respecting the "dead". They are saying "We don't treat humans, even dead ones, like garbage". --- 09/10/1993
Philosophy, death. --- Funerary practices. Cremation, burial at sea, or sky burial is the way to go. Graves and graveyards are baloney. --- 6/30/1998
Philosophy, death. --- Funerary practices. Cultures in which people decide to throw a party at the wake of a dead person, strike me as the height of repression. Talk about denial. These people are essentially saying, "I am not in grief at all. I'm happy even. See, look at me laugh". --- 8/31/1999
Philosophy, death. --- How conscious a person is of death, time, and age. How often they think, consciously and unconsciously, of these concepts. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- I thought death was like a mistake you could un-delete on your computer. It is not. --- 9/30/1996
Philosophy, death. --- If god likes us why does he kill us all? Out of mercy. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Implications of death on life. Ethical implications. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Kill vs. being killed. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Killing = causing death of x. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Life after death: (1) The Will. (2) The Notes. (3) Fame. The history books. --- 6/30/1998
Philosophy, death. --- Life, why. Why people live. (1) Fear dying. (2) Fear being dead. Fear not existing. (3) Fear punishment by god in afterlife. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Lost, misplaced, stolen, destroyed; by self, by others, by nature. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Metaphysics and death. What is death? When is someone dead? --- 11/12/2005
Philosophy, death. --- Needless death, avoidable death, preventable death, that is the big issue. --- 6/12/2005
Philosophy, death. --- People want a fair shot at life. They fear not getting that. Ex. dying a virgin. --- 4/29/2001
Philosophy, death. --- Poems for the dead are like flowers for the dead. The dead can't hear the poems or see the flowers. The dead can't use poems or flowers. So why do we send them? The poems and flowers are more for the living. To appease ourselves. To please ourselves. Poems and flowers for the living I say. --- 3/14/2000
Philosophy, death. --- Psychological reactions to death. (1) Pain: sorrow, despair (sorrow plus loss of hope), and grief. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Related subjects. (1) The psychology of death. Fears of dying. (2) The sociology of death. Weird societal attitudes and practices regarding death. (3) The economics of death. The funerary industry. (4) The politics of death. Assisted suicide. Death penalty. Euthanasia. (5) The science of death. Suspended animation. Cryogenics. (6) The philosophy of death. The ethics of death. (7) Death in the arts. (8) The history of attitudes and practices regarding death. --- 8/8/2006
Philosophy, death. --- See also: Philosophy, life. --- 4/16/2006
Philosophy, death. --- Should we try to live as long as we can? At any expense? --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Some people, upon realizing their own mortality, are gripped by fear. Other people, upon realizing their mortality, increase their resolve to do some good. You decide. --- 6/12/2005
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide (1) Hurts the ones who love you. (2) Sets a bad example (others will copy you). (3) Waste of life. (4) What if everyone did it? (5) The ethics of life is thus, never give up. --- 12/30/1995
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide can be committed by someone angry at self and world, not sad. Suicide can be viewed as an act of violence and self destruction based in anger, not sadness. --- 12/29/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide drives, three types. (1) Some people kill themselves because they feel indignity, shame, humiliation, or an affront to self, which can be caused by either themselves, others or nature. (2) Freedom mongers kill themselves because they view life as slavery. (3) Some people kill themselves because they feel revulsion. (A) Ethical revulsion is when the ethical injustice of life revolts you. (B) Aesthetic revulsion is when the aesthetic ugliness of life revolts you. (C) Ethical revulsion and aesthetic revulsion often coincide. --- 4/29/2001
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide is a comfort. Knowing you can kill self. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide is a consoling option (thus said Nietzsche), but the constant threat of it takes a toll on you. --- 09/30/1995
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide is not wrong sometimes, like killing is not wrong sometimes (in war, in self defense). --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide is ok for me because I'm a fu*k up. More life means more fu*k ups for me and others. It is a far far better thing I do... --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide prevention methods. (1) Rational arguments. Discussion of neurotransmitters. (2) Emotional appeals. Tell them they are loved by others. (3) Emotional bonds. Connect with them. Get them to love you. Make them feel loved by you. (4) Get them to develop some meaning in their life. (5) Get them to delay or postpone the suicide. (6) Allay their fears. Tell them life is not that bad. (7) For a start, get them to admit they are feeling bad, get them to admit they are thinking about suicide. (8) Assuage their regrets. Tell them they are not to blame. (9) Why they want to kill themselves. (A) Physical pain as their reason. (B) Ethics as their reason. They feel they are bad and evil and/or the world is evil. (C) They feel worthless. --- 8/9/1998
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. (1) Arguments for suicide: better to kill self than someone else. (2) Arguments contra suicide: your suicide hurts others deeply? Tough. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. (1) How many people, at some point in their lives, have said to themselves, "I wish I was dead." It is probably a very high percentage, perhaps ninety five percent. (2) Of the people who have at some point in their lives thought to themselves, "I wish I was dead.", what percentage have later thought, "If I had killed myself at that point it would have been a bad move."? Probably a very high percentage, perhaps ninety percent. (3) So, we see, at some point you will very probably feel like killing yourself, and if you do not kill yourself then you will very probably feel better later having not killed yourself. And this has a very high percentage of probability, a very high degree of confidence. --- 1/12/2004
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. (1) Reasons to kill self. World is shit hole. You can't make it better. You actually make it worse. (2) Reasons to live. You can make world better. Life is fun. World is cool. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. (1) Suicide is not so much cowardice as it is, (A) Stupidity and ignorance of thinking there is no hope, and (B) Depression of feeling there is no hope. Seldom is it cowardice. (2) A few times it is the correct, rational thing to do. --- 08/30/1993
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. A person has not reached mature thought till they have considered suicide. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. At what point will any specific individual cash in their chips? --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Criteria for living or killing self. (1) Can you make a living? (2) Do you want to live? (3) Can you do more good than harm? --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Don't be afraid to die, or live. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Forcing yourself to live can be cowardice or bravery, it depends on the situation. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. I used to think that suicide was a personal choice, if you didn't have a wife or kids to support. If you feel bad about living, commit suicide. If you feel you will hurt someone by living, commit suicide. Now I feel that suicide is a waste of life and human potential, and every method must be exhausted to get mental health back to peak condition. Because we all have to solve the worlds problems and our own problems. It is our ethical obligation or duty, a duty that starts at birth for all of us, and that can't be avoided or ignored. Life is problem solving, and good making, and perfection pursuing. --- 02/09/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. If everyone who is less intelligent than me, or physically or psychologically less healthy than me, killed themselves, the world population would go down at least 50%. --- 09/30/1995
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. If suicide was as easy as flicking a light switch, a lot more of us would be dead. If I had a painless pill, I would have been dead many times by now. --- 01/07/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Is suicide murder? Nope? --- 05/20/1994
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Me. Never put yourself in position where you can not kill your self. Don't get mixed up in things that will prevent you from killing yourself. Ex. girlfriend, kids, family, friends. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. One reason people kill themselves is they think no one cares. The feel they have no one close to them, so what difference does it make. People are less likely to kill themselves when they have close relations, especially if they have people who they feel are counting on them. --- 01/11/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Reason not to commit suicide. You can cause anyone who ever hurt you to feel tons of guilt. Not just sadness. --- 12/26/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Reason why we shouldn't commit suicide. Can't commit suicide because there is an ethical imperative to keep working to make the world a better place, and do good. --- 09/30/1996
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Saying "I would never kill myself" is tantamount to saying "I'd do anything to stay alive" (pun on id), which is pretty low. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Serial killers should kill themselves. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Societal and religious norms against suicide are b.s.. They are illogical rules. Also there are exceptions to every logical rule anyway too. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Some days I can't wait to die. Some days I never want to die. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Some people hold the following less than optimal views that suicide aint wrong, and that it is justified in some cases. (1) It weeds out the weak and crazy. (2) Some should do it (serial killers). (3) Prevents harm by nuts. (4) Prevents reproduction of duds. (5) Prevents drain by unproductive. (6) Laying down your life for others. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Suicide is the ultimate form of masochism. There are at least two types of suicide. (1) One is wanting to die. Thinking life and the world are too much pain for you. (2) The other form is feeling you deserve to die, or feeling you should die. Thinking you cause people distress, and that you do bad things, and that you are evil. --- 01/19/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. The most important ethical question: "To be or not to be? (Shakespere)" --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. The suicide of someone you know messes you up. It does not just make you feel sad. It does not just make you feel guilty. It messes you up. You do not get over it. --- 4/18/2001
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. The two poles of the spectrum. Nothing is worth dying for vs. nothing is worth living for. Everything else is in-between. --- 01/06/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Three views on suicide. (1) Never do it; never even think of doing it. This view is held by some religious types and some medical people. (2) Sometimes it is ok to do; sometimes it is ok to think about it. This view seems to be held by Kervorkian. (3) Do it anytime you want; think about it anytime you want. This view is held by me up till about fall '95. --- 09/30/1995
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. When people kill themselves, they are as often feeling disgust as much as they are feeling sadness. Depression can show itself in the form, not of sadness, but of a pessimism and negativism, which shows itself as disgust and hatred of people and the world. --- 01/23/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Whether you kill yourself depends on (1) Will to live. Have something you want to live for. (2) Pain of living you feel. (A) Objective opposition: what you are actually up against. (B) Subjective opposition: how bad it seems to you. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Why kill self? Views. (1) Can't support self economically. (2) Don't want to give in to enemy's shit. (3) Too much pain, too little joy and fun. (4) Too hard, no fun. (5) Don't want to give into their evil. (6) Don't want to give into own evil. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Why live, various views. (1) Have fun and enjoy. Take it easy. (2) Make world a better place. (3) Make yourself a better person. Be all you can be. (4) Have kids. Obey god. (5) Too lazy or cowardly to kill self. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. Wrong attitudes that people take about others who commit suicide. (1) It was gods will. (2) They deserved it if they did it. (3) What is past is past. (4) Only the mentally ill commit suicide, and it is better off for them and us if the mentally ill die. --- 01/23/1997
Philosophy, death. --- Suicide. You are a good person, not a bad person. You are useful, not useless. You are needed, not unneeded. Life is mostly good, not mostly bad. You will feel good again. Don't do anything rash. Wait. Wait days. Wait months. Wait years. Work at making things better. --- 11/18/2004
Philosophy, death. --- Terms. Destruction, decay, disappearance, ending, cessation, ceases to be. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- The big fear is not death and dying. The big fear is wasting life by not living. --- 4/29/2001
Philosophy, death. --- The fascination with death displayed by teens and risk-sport enthusiasts is really a fascination with life, although they do not recognize it as such. Understanding death is easy, it is the concept of nothingness. Understanding life is not easy. When they say "Cool, he's dead", they really mean "Cool, I'm alive". They are both psyched up and mystified at once. --- 10/30/1997
Philosophy, death. --- To die naturally, peacefully and suddenly is nice. Naturally meaning not due to self, and not due to others. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Two conceptions of death. (1) Death vs. birth. (2) Death vs. life. --- 6/3/2004
Philosophy, death. --- Types of death. (1) Death of someone you care about. Death of someone you are close to can trigger a lot of strong emotions and thoughts. Especially depending on the circumstances of the death. Feelings of sadness, anger and loss. Thoughts of your own mortality. (2) The death of a friend produces in some people an alarming lack of emotion and thought. Death exposes the shallow. --- 7/24/2006
Philosophy, death. --- Types of death. (1) Your own eventual and impending death. (2) Death of someone you know. (3) Seeing a stranger die. (4) Slaughter of sentient animals. --- 7/16/2006
Philosophy, death. --- Types of death. Ways to die. (1) Accident, injury. Car, train, plane crash. Unavoidable, unpreventable. (2) Illness, disease. (3) Murder. (4) Negligence on part of someone else. (5) Peacefully, in sleep, of old age. (6) Before your time is due. (7) Avoidable, preventable. Self induced drugs, alcohol. Your own negligence. (8) Painful versus painless. (9) Slowly versus quickly. --- 7/16/2006
Philosophy, death. --- Unexpected loss vs. loss you saw coming (example, old age and death). --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Various attitudes toward death. (1) Some people fear death. (2) Some people are fascinated with death. (3) Some people yearn for death. (4) Some psychotic people yearn to kill. Healthy people do not really want to kill. (5) Some people have an icy, emotionless attitude about death. Some people do not care about their own death nor any one else's death. These people often display a reckless disregard for life. Sociopaths have no empathy. (6) Some people like death, enjoy death, and want to see more death. Ghouls. Some people get a perverse thrill from killing. Some people get sexual kicks from death. (7) Some ignorant individuals think you cannot be a man unless you kill. --- 7/16/2006
Philosophy, death. --- Ways people buy the farm. (1) Incurable, unpreventable illness or accident. Tragic. (2) Curable or preventable illness or accident that was never addressed till it was too late. Tragic. (3) Murder. Tragic. (4) Suicide. Tragic. (5) Of very old age. Peacefully. Happy ending. Comedy. --- 5/31/2006
Philosophy, death. --- When something totally useful and good is totally lost, and totally irreplaceable (totally unique), it is bad. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- When. (1) You could die soon, and if you lived for the future then your hard work will be wasted and you will have never enjoyed life. (2) You could live to 100, and if you didn't know you would live that long you will have no money saved. (3) The big problem is not knowing when you will die, and thus over-estimating or under-estimating how long you will live, and thus making planning mistakes. --- 12/30/1995
Philosophy, death. --- When. The problem is not knowing when you'll die. You could die any day: thus the mistake of waiting too long to do things. You could live a long time: thus the mistake of being shortsighted. --- 12/30/1992
Philosophy, death. --- Why our bodies decay before we die. If we lived in perfect health up till the very end then no one would want to die, and death would come as a major shock to our loved ones. Slowly falling apart, on the other hand, gets us in the mood to die. "Death would be a delight after this misery", we say. And slowly falling apart helps prepare our loved ones for our eventual absence. --- 6/25/2000