Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Philosophy and Death

#1
Magical Realist Offline
Death is the absolute terminus of thought and experience. Not so much in the sense of us not existing, but rather in the sense of being a complete unknowable. We only witness other people dying, and only do so then in terms of their objective physical bodies. There is no perception or subjective grasp of what our death is or even that it is. Our death will inevitably entail the loss of everything we experience in this world. Whether it is a passage into a higher state or simply not existing at all, we can say for sure that our life as we know it here will have ceased. Death encapsulates the concept of the total Other, but no longer as just noumenal Being. As inconceivability itself. As the presence of the unexperiencable inevitable event.
=================================================================
"Philosophers and non-philosophers stand on a level of equality with respect to death. There are no experts on death, for there is nothing to know about it. Not even those who study the death process have an edge on the rest of us. We are all equals in thinking about death, and we all begin and end thinking about it from a position of ignorance.

Death and its concept are absolutely empty. No picture comes to mind. The concept of death has a use for the living, while death itself has no use for anything. All we can say about death is that it is either real or it is not real. If it is real, then the end of one's life is a simple termination. If it is not real, then the end of one's embodied life is not true death, but a portal to another life.

Having no content, we must speak of death metaphorically. For those who think death is real, death is a blank wall. For those who think it is not real, death is a door to another life. Whether we think of death as a wall or a door, we cannot avoid using one metaphor or another. We often say that a person who dies is relieved of suffering. However, if death is real, then it is metaphorical even to say that the dead do not suffer, as though something of them remains not to suffer. As there are already many speculations about some sort of 'next life,' I will focus on the view that death is real and marks the final end of an individual's life.,,"

http://www.philosophersmag.com/index.php...ts-concept
Reply
#2
C C Offline
(Mar 25, 2017 07:16 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: Death is the absolute terminus of thought and experience. Not so much in the sense of us not existing, but rather in the sense of being a complete unknowable. We only witness other people dying, and only do so then in terms of their objective physical bodies. There is no perception or subjective grasp of what our death is or even that it is. Our death will inevitably entail the loss of everything we experience in this world. Whether it is a passage into a higher state or simply not existing at all, we can say for sure that our life as we know it here will have ceased. Death encapsulates the concept of the total Other, but no longer as just noumenal Being. As inconceivability itself. As the presence of the unexperiencable inevitable event.


Just as information can't travel FTL or piggyback with any abrupt inflationary expansions of space or whatever else might exceed FTL... A transition of cognition from one brain-state to a more spatio-temporally "distant" one would never have confirmation of itself having even occurred. Do to no knowledge from the former brain/body configuration being carried.

With that said, however, I've experienced a handful of unusual quasi-amnesic moments in my life. For instance: Years ago I was sitting up in the bleachers of a high school football game, and in the noise of the crowd and glare of lights I suddenly felt confused and thought: "Where am !? What the devil's going on here -- how did I get here? For that matter -- who am !?"

I easily retrieved brain memories which resolved the questions, but they still seemed kind of 3rd-person, as if it was data which belonged to either someone else entirely or a younger or older version of myself. As I glanced bewildered at the people beside me who I was supposed to be familiar with, I thought: "Just pretend; go with what these memories are telling you and don't panic or do anything that will indicate an internal crisis."

That feeling of being out of sync with my body or as if I was apprehending from a far distance the surrounding environment through the senses of a humanoid drone, persisted for a few more minutes. Finally it subsided and I felt "integrated". I also recollected that it wasn't the first time such an eccentric episode had happened; nor would it turn out to be the last. (A couple occurred in the opposite context of quiet, peaceful circumstances.)

While there are a variety of mundane explanations for such experiences (as well as perhaps serious medical ones on occasion), that very overdetermination provides a potential "mask" for the aforementioned to opportunistically hide under. And there would be no information conveyed from the original source of the cognitive transition (i.e., upon "arriving" the precipitous conjunction is totally at the mercy of having to rely on memories which the target brain-state can provide).

The temporary, ensuing confusion could provide a vague loophole of stimulating speculative inference in that regard. But here's no way to validate such guesswork; and there might only be a handful of individuals who have ever lived for which the possibility would suggest itself or be remotely entertained. (Which is to say, most transmigrations of "experiential continuance" in folk beliefs probably revolve around the time of conception or fetal brain development being seized as the portals of opportunity. Not conjunction and integration with a life history that's already full underway -- or a sporadic return to one's past or leap to one's future, should that be the case).
Reply
#3
Magical Realist Offline
Being that nothing emotionally jolting brought it on I'd say that disassociative moment was something physically based. I've had episodes where for around 10 minutes everything seems like a dream I've had. Nothing seems real and I am temporarily disconnected from the realness of my environnment. My brother had epilepsy in his younger years and describes that as the sensation of an aura. Perhaps it was very mild seizure of that sort. Who knows all the weird things that can go wrong with consciousness in a brain. It's a miracle we don't experience more glitches than we do. There also a dissassociative fugue state which can last for hours or for days. Heres some info on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state
Reply
#4
Zinjanthropos Offline
Drove my wife to the airport this morning, it was very early, dark. It's 45 minutes up the road and I was feeling tired. Normally I would have grabbed a coffee at some point but my intentions were to go back to bed when I got back. Don't know if this relates to MR's thread but I honestly can't remember the trip back. I do know that once I got near my highway exit, my mind came around and the realization of how did I get here suddenly emerged. Granted, I was tired to begin with and without that coffee or at least something to occupy my thoughts, I cruised home on autopilot. I'm sure everyone who has driven a vehicle while in a state of drowsiness has experienced similar feelings. Maybe I should have turned on the radio and listened to George Noory's all night paranormal talk show just to get my brain working. Maybe listening to something would have jarred me awake somewhat. Back to bed I go.
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Bayesianism + Philosophy of space and time + Intro to philosophy of race C C 0 75 Aug 7, 2022 03:45 PM
Last Post: C C
  Religion vs Philosophy in 3 Minutes + Philosophy of Science with Hilary Putnam C C 2 614 Oct 16, 2019 05:26 PM
Last Post: C C
  How the untimely death of RG Collingwood changed course of philosophy forever C C 1 372 Sep 8, 2019 06:27 PM
Last Post: Yazata
  Bring back science & philosophy as natural philosophy C C 0 492 May 15, 2019 02:21 AM
Last Post: C C
  The return of Aristotelian views in philosophy & philosophy of science: Goodbye Hume? C C 1 667 Aug 17, 2018 02:01 PM
Last Post: Zinjanthropos



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)