Category: Death and Immortality
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Death as Equalizer, I
At game's end, pawns, pieces, and King all go into the same box. (Adapted from an Italian proverb.)
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Deserving Immortality
I lately aphorized: Which is better: to inquire whether there is immortality, or to live in such a way as to deserve it? Both are good, but the second is better. A childhood friend and committed Christian offers this well-crafted comment: You are meant for immortality but cannot live in such a way as to…
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Immortality
Which is better: to inquire whether there is immortality, or to live in such a way as to deserve it? Both are good, but the second is better.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Death and Resurrection
Johnny Cash, Ain't No GraveJohnny Cash, RedemptionMississippi John Hurt, You've Got to Walk that Lonesome ValleyB. B. King, See That My Grave is Kept CleanBlind Boy Grunt (Bob Bylan), Gospel PlowBob Dylan, Fixin' to DieJohnny Cash, Personal JesusJohnny Cash, HurtJohnny Cash, Final Interview. He speaks of his faith starting at 5:15. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and…
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A Philosopher’s Last Words
What I haven't been able to learn by living I now hope to learn by dying.
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Journeys and Preparations
We plan our journeys long and short. We lay our plans for trips abroad well in advance. And those who leave their homeland and emigrate to another country take special care. Why then are we so careless about the journey on which all must embark and none return? "Because it is a journey into sheer…
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Peter Hitchens Remembers His Brother
Excerpt: Last week I saw my brother for the last time in a fairly grim hospital room in Houston, Texas. He was in great pain, and suffering in several other ways I will not describe. But he was wholly conscious and in command of his wits, and able to speak clearly. We both knew it…
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On Hitchens and Death
The Hitch is dead. The following is a re-post, slightly emended, from 16 August 2010. …………………. I just caught the last third of an interview of Christopher Hitchens by Charlie Rose. Hitchens looks bad, the chemotherapy having done a nasty tonsorial number on him. But his trademark intellectual incandescence appeared undiminished. 'Brilliant' is a word…
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Mors et Hora Mortis
Death is certain but the hour of death is not. Do not try to make an uncertainty of what is certain, or a certainty of what is uncertain.
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Last Words
Why do we consider last words significant? Is it because we suppose that the moment of death is or can be a moment of heightened existential lucidity? Here are Steve Jobs' last words as reported by his sister. Brace yourself.
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Steve Jobs (1955-2011) on Death
This is from Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement address: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in…
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Notes on Mortality and Christian Doctrine
1. Let's start with the word 'mortal' and remind ourselves of some obvious points. 'Mortal' is from the Latin mors, mortis meaning death. That which is mortal is either subject to death, or conducive to death, or in some way expressive of death. Thus when we say of a human being that he is mortal…
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A Problem for the Hylomorphic Dualist
A position in the philosophy of mind that is currently under-represented and under-discussed is Thomistic or hylomorphic dualism. Whereas the tendency of the substance dualist is to identify the person with his soul or mind, the hylomorphic approach identifies the person with a soul-body composite in which soul stands to body as form (morphe) stands…
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Never Say Die
Susan Jacoby's new book fell into my hands the other day. It is entitled Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age (Pantheon, 2011). Although I noticed some things in the first chapter that are clearly true and worth pointing out, the preface raised my critical eyebrows a bit. But I…