Test 1 Death & Afterlife

Awareness Context

The degree to which people know and acknowledge that someone is dying.

Closed Awareness

The dying person does not know they are dying, while others know.

Suspected Awareness

The dying person suspects they are dying, but others do not openly confirm it.

Mutual Pretense Awareness

Everyone knows someone is dying, but everyone pretends that no one knows.

Open Awareness

The dying person and everyone around them openly acknowledge that death is approaching.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Pioneer of the modern death-awareness movement and a major figure in studying dying.

Kübler-Ross's Five Stages

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Denial

The initial refusal or inability to accept the reality of impending death.

Anger

The stage involving frustration, resentment, or anger about dying.

Bargaining

The stage involving attempts to negotiate for more time or a different outcome.

Depression

The stage involving sadness and recognition of the approaching loss.

Acceptance

The stage involving acknowledgment and acceptance of the reality of death.

Kübler-Ross and Hospice

Kübler-Ross's work helped promote the hospice movement.

Kübler-Ross and Autonomy

Her work contributed to the broader movement toward patient autonomy in end-of-life care.

Advance Directive

A document stating a person's wishes for future medical treatment.

Living Will

A document specifying which medical treatments a person wants or does not want.

Medical Proxy

A person authorized to make medical decisions for someone who cannot make them.

Power of Attorney

Legal authority allowing another person to make decisions on someone's behalf.

Preconditions for Defining Death

Questions about whether death is biological or social, reversible or irreversible, and a process or event.

Death as a Biological Phenomenon

The view that death fundamentally concerns the biological functioning of an organism.

Death as a Social Phenomenon

The view that definitions and recognition of death are also shaped by society and culture.

Can an Organism Be Neither Alive Nor Dead?

A question about whether intermediate states exist between life and death.

Death as a Process

The idea that dying may occur gradually rather than as one instantaneous event.

Death as an Event

The idea that death occurs at a particular identifiable point.

Reversible Death

A state in which vital functions can potentially be restored.

Irreversible Death

A state in which the lost vital functions cannot be restored.

Possible Definition of Death

Irreversible cessation of all cellular functions.

Possible Definition of Death

Death occurs when the soul departs the body.

Possible Definition of Death

Death is the loss of vital functions.

Contemporary Definition of Death

Cessation of functioning of the organism as a whole.

Criterion of Death

A condition used to determine whether death has occurred.

Necessary Criterion

A condition that must be present for a particular conclusion to be true.

Sufficient Criterion

A condition that is enough by itself to establish a particular conclusion.

Death Criteria Debate

The debate over whether death should be determined by the brain or by circulation and respiration.

Brain Criterion

Death is determined through the irreversible loss of brain functioning.

Higher-Brain Criterion

Death is defined by irreversible loss of higher brain functions associated with consciousness and personality.

Whole-Brain Criterion

Death is defined by irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain.

Cardiopulmonary Criterion

Death is defined by irreversible cessation of circulation and respiration.

Conscious Awareness and Death

A major issue in determining whether loss of consciousness should constitute death.

Why Is the Higher-Brain Standard Useful?

It focuses on loss of consciousness and the qualities associated with personhood.

Biological Concept of Death

Death understood in terms of the organism's biological functioning.

Medical Concept of Death

Death determined using medical criteria and clinical standards.

Biological vs Medical Death

Biology asks what death is; medicine applies criteria to determine when it has occurred.

Organ Donation and Death Criteria

A controversy over whether the need for transplantable organs influences death standards.

Irreversible vs Permanent

Irreversible means the function cannot be restored; permanent may mean it simply will not be restored.

DCDD

Donation after circulatory determination of death.

DCDD and Death

A procedure in which organs are donated after death is determined using circulatory criteria.

Holism

The view that the body is essential to being a complete person or self.

Dualism

The view that a person consists of two distinct aspects, commonly body and mind or soul.

Holistic View of the Self

The physical body is an essential part of what makes someone who they are.

Dualistic View of the Self

The self can be understood as distinct from the physical body.

Religion as a Cultural Institution

Religion is embedded within particular cultures and shapes beliefs about existence and death.

Religion and Birth

For many people, religious affiliation is largely determined by the culture or family into which they are born.

Spirituality

The experience of encountering something beyond or transcendent to oneself.

Religious Questions About Death

What happens after death, how to attain a positive afterlife, and how to relate to the dead.

Ancient Near East

Ancient civilizations whose religious ideas strongly influenced later Western thought.

Why Study Ancient Near Eastern Religions?

They are formative influences on later Western religious and philosophical ideas.

Mesopotamia

An ancient civilization located roughly in present-day Iraq.

Mesopotamian View of the Dead

The dead were believed to continue as shades or spirits in an underworld.

Shade

A spirit-like existence of a deceased person that continues after bodily death.

Etimmu

A Mesopotamian term referring to the spirit or ghost of a deceased person.

Epic of Gilgamesh

Ancient Mesopotamian epic containing important reflections on mortality and the limits of human life.

Gilgamesh's Lesson About Death

Human beings cannot escape mortality, so they must confront and accept the limits of life.

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian civilization with a complex and evolving conception of death and the afterlife.

Egyptian Mummification

The preservation of the body, reflecting the importance of bodily existence after death.

Why Was the Body Important in Egypt?

The body was considered important for continued spiritual existence after death.

Ka

An aspect of the Egyptian person associated with life force or vital essence.

Ba

An aspect of the Egyptian person associated with personality and mobility between worlds.

Osiris

Egyptian god associated with death, resurrection, and judgment in the afterlife.

Isis

Osiris's wife and an important Egyptian goddess associated with restoration and resurrection.

Egyptian Judgment

The deceased's heart was evaluated as part of determining their fate after death.

Heart in Ancient Egyptian Belief

The seat of consciousness and conscience.

Pyramid Texts

Early Egyptian funerary texts dating roughly from 2700–2100 BCE.

Coffin Texts

Egyptian funerary texts dating roughly from 2100–1700 BCE.

Egyptian Book of the Dead

A collection of spells, prayers, hymns, formulas, and procedures for the afterlife.

Egyptian Book of the Dead Meaning

Also translated as chapters of going forth by day.

Greco-Roman Conceptions of Death

Ancient Greek and Roman myths and philosophies offered multiple ideas about death and the afterlife.

Psyche

The Greek concept of the soul or life principle.

Hades

Both the Greek realm of the dead and the god who ruled it.

Persephone

Wife of Hades and queen of the Greek underworld.

Tartarus

A section of the underworld associated with punishment of the wicked.

Greek Shade

An idea that the dead continue after death as a spiritual or shadow-like existence.

Necromancy

The practice of summoning or communicating with the dead.

Mystery Cults

Religious movements that offered initiatory experiences and ideas about death and salvation.

Dualism in Greek Philosophy

The body and soul are treated as distinct, with the body often associated with evil and the soul with good.

Plato's View of the Self

Plato emphasized the higher mind or soul as divine and distinct from the body.

Plato and Death

Death can free the soul from the limitations of the physical body.

Aristotle's View of the Self

Aristotle viewed the body and active intelligence as interconnected, with individuality ending when the body dies.

Stoic View of Matter

Stoics viewed everything as matter, including the mind, which they considered finer matter.

Epicurus's View of Death

Epicurus held that everything is material and therefore there is no personal afterlife.

Plato's Influence

Plato's dualistic ideas became highly influential on later Western religious traditions.

Judaism and Death

Judaism is diverse and has historically placed strong emphasis on living this life well.

Jewish Views of the Afterlife

Judaism contains multiple views of the afterlife and does not have universal agreement.

Holocaust and Jewish Life

The Holocaust reinforced the importance placed on living and valuing this life.

Tanakh

The Hebrew Bible containing Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim.

Torah

The first five books of the Tanakh.

Nevi'im

The Prophets section of the Tanakh.

Ketuvim

The Writings section of the Tanakh.

Biblical Judaism

Judaism associated with the era of the Hebrew Bible and the Jerusalem Temple.

Jewish Cause of Death

In Genesis, death enters human existence after Adam and Eve's disobedience to God.