Death has always captivated and fascinated the globe. From the spiritual customs and sacrifices of the ancient world; to medieval superstitions and ideals; to early modern age poetry, writing, and other literature; to legal statutes and cultural practices of today; death has always been as intertwined with human culture as life has been. Why is this, though? Why is it that something that appears to be scary, gruesome, and generally unpleasant, is such a staple of all human nations? Even the world’s most well-known and respected faiths and religions have concrete and distinct thoughts and practices on the meaning of death and what happens thereafter. People have an innate captivation with death, and long to understand more of what happens, before, during, and after death. Viewing this brings about the question of how death should be defined.
Discoursing death cannot happen unless life is being discussed also. Arguably, the characteristics and features of life must be presented and talked over first, before death can accurately be debated and understood. There are countless ways to define life. A quick check in the dictionary shows nearly two dozen definitions for the word “life.” The definitions range from the physical …show more content…
Death is not merely the lack of life, as it is so commonly mistaken as. Just having the absence of life does not constitute death. Something must first be living to have died. Moreover, there is a difference between the physical meaning of “alive” and the philosophical idea of “having life”. Humans have an individual purpose, a meaning to their life. Humans have a “life.” Differing from this is other living beings such as animals and plants, who, although are living, do not have lives in the theoretical sense, i.e. they do not have a greater call or purpose to their life than to do their biological
Discoursing death cannot happen unless life is being discussed also. Arguably, the characteristics and features of life must be presented and talked over first, before death can accurately be debated and understood. There are countless ways to define life. A quick check in the dictionary shows nearly two dozen definitions for the word “life.” The definitions range from the physical …show more content…
Death is not merely the lack of life, as it is so commonly mistaken as. Just having the absence of life does not constitute death. Something must first be living to have died. Moreover, there is a difference between the physical meaning of “alive” and the philosophical idea of “having life”. Humans have an individual purpose, a meaning to their life. Humans have a “life.” Differing from this is other living beings such as animals and plants, who, although are living, do not have lives in the theoretical sense, i.e. they do not have a greater call or purpose to their life than to do their biological