FYS Exam 1

Existentialism

Because there is no inherent meaning in the universe and no guaranteed afterlife, the absolute finality of death forces us to take radical responsibility for our lives and create our own meaning before the clock runs out.

Resurrection

Returning or restarting the same life in the same body after an apparent (not actual) end to that life.

Reincarnation

The beginning of a new life, in a new body, that carries over some essential part of a previous life.

Judaism

Life does not end with apparent death, but the specifics of the afterlife are not specific.

Christianity and Islam

Life continues after death, with an eventual resurrection of our bodies either in a form of paradise or a place of eternal punishment.

Hinduism

The same non-physical soul inhabits many different bodies and lives through the numerous cycles of reincarnation. Each reincarnation is determined by the moral weight of their actions (karma) in the past life, until ultimate liberation is achieved.

Buddhism

Views death as part of a continuous cycle of rebirth, but rejects the idea of an eternal soul. Rebirth is simply the transfer of karmic energy, and the ultimate goal is to escape this cycle of suffering by achieving Nirvana.

Martin Buber

Argued that we find meaning in our lives through deep, authentic, mutual connections with others. Engaging in these encounters allows us to touch the eternal in the present moment, defying the finality of death.

Marie Howe

Argued that the profound grief of losing a loved one transforms our relationship with the present, making the most mundane, everyday physical moments feel beautiful and sacred.

David Eagleman

Argued that there are three deaths, the first when your body stops, the second when you are buried, and the third and most important death, which occurs exactly when your name is spoken for the last time.

Todd May

Argued that death is the ultimate tragedy that abruptly terminates our life’s projects, yet it is simultaneously the only thing that gives our lives urgency, shape, and meaning.

Martin Heidegger

Argued that facing our mortality is the only way to snap out of mindless conformity and live an authentic life. He argues that no one else can die for you.

Mary Oliver

Argued that our awareness of our mortality should inspire us to live with fierce, joyful presence rather than dread.

Philip Larkin

Argued that the blankness and extinction of death is genuinely horrifying and rejected both religious and philosophical comfort.

Physicalism

Everything that exists is physical. Some things are simple objects, others a collection of simple objects, and being mere collections of both simple and complex objects.

Essential property

The core trait that makes something exactly what it is. If we lose that property, we cease to exist.

“The personality view”

The fact that someone being a particular person is a matter of them having a particular personality, and when that personality dies, so does the person.

“The body view”

You have to have the same body over time, and once that body dies, that person dies.

P-functioning

When a body is performing processes necessary for someone to exist as a person, like thinking or communicating.

B-functioning

When a body is performing non-cognitive processes to keep the body alive, like breathing and digesting food.

Algor mortis

The cooling of the body after death.

Newton's law of cooling

A solid object loses heat at a rate directly proportional to the difference in temperature between the object and its environment. Turned out to be a poor predictor of time of death.

Rigor mortis

The body becomes stiff after death because of a lack of ATP as the body uses up all its resources after death.

The vitreous humor of the eye

Fluid or liquid from the eye that was believed to be able to be used to determine the near-exact time of death. Turned out to be unreliable.

Shelley Kagan

Argued that we are nothing more than functioning bodies without immortal souls - and used humanity’s bias towards the future to explain why it is rational to fear death but not the time before we were born. Was a physicalist and believed death harms us after we die.

Jessica Snyder Sachs

Argued that death is not one event, and is rather a gradual biological process, highlighting the impossibility of pinpointing an exact, single moment of death.

Epicurus

Argued that death is nothing to us because all good and bad require sensation, and when we die, we no longer feel sensation. If we aren’t there to experience it, then it cannot hurt us.

Lucretius

Argued that we should not fear the eternity after death because it was the exact same as the eternity before we were born, also known as the “Symmetry Argument.”

Steven Luper

Argued that death is a bad thing because it robs the victim of the good experiences they could’ve had, and people can be harmed even if they don’t exist to feel said harm. Death can also be bad for us while we are living because it can change our actions.

Duncam MacDougal

Argued that the soul weighs 21 grams and exists physically, based on weighing terminally ill patients as they died.

John Locke

Argued that the problem with medicine is that we are wedded to the notion that the soul exists in the non-physical world, when in reality it doesn’t, and in fact, when talking about the soul, you are really just talking about psychological stuff.

Psychological continuity

Defines a person’s survival and identity through an overlapping chain of mental connections, such as memories, beliefs, desires, and personality traits, rather than physical bodily persistence.

Twins

Two children born in the same pregnancy.

Fusion

One twin absorbs the other in the womb.

Chimaerism

A single organism has 2 or more sets of cells.

Virtue

How a wise person understands and prepares for their own mortality, using the awareness of their inevitable death to live more purposefully.

Wheel of samsara

A Buddhist visual diagram that shows the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

Dasein

Humans define their lives through an essential, constant anticipation of their own death.

Furcht

A fear of something specific regarding death, like the physical pain of dying, or leaving your family behind.

Angst

A state of unease that emerges when someone becomes aware and conscious of their own mortality, the lack of inherent meaning in the universe, and the freedom to define their own existence.

Hedonism

Things that cause us pleasure are morally good, and things that cause us pain are morally bad. If, however, that thing causes more pain to someone else, it is morally bad.

Atomism

The physical universe is made up of fundamental, indivisible building blocks called atoms moving through an empty void.

Theme 1 of Heidegger’s Being and Time

Death is the end of us.

Theme 2 of Heidegger’s Being and Time

Dying is simply a stoppage, rather than an accomplishment or goal.

Theme 3 of Heidegger’s Being and Time

We will all die, and we don’t know when.

Theme 4 of Heidegger’s Being and Time

While death itself does not directly give life meaning, the awareness of our inevitable death can.

The Symmetry Argument

We shouldn’t fear our death, as we didn’t exist before we were born, and are okay.