The reading consisted of a chapter within John MacQuarrie’s book entitled In Search of Humanity. The chapter dealt with the topic of the human condition and what appears to be a condition of all physically living entities in our world—the topic of death.
MacQuarrie examined the different perspectives of death. Does it have to be seen some something entirely negative? Are there positive aspects to death? After taking a look at such questions about death from different angles, Macquarrie offers that one could have a hope beyond death without being found guilty of mere escapism.
It was not until the final paragraph that I realised what MacQuarrie was aiming for in his chapter on death. The issue of whether death is something to be entirely dreaded, or something that could be welcomingly embraced, is important to accessing whether hope in an afterlife is merely a delusory form of escapism. While I do not believe, even if death was found to be something entirely dreaded, that hope in a reality of life beyond death would be in some way thwarted; I found it very interesting to explore whether death necessarily needs to be embraced as something dreaded.
Being Christian and one who would prefer not to entertain trivialities in life, I actually find death in this life to be a welcoming though unnerving event. I could not say that I look forward to the way I will die, especially if it would be by a painful means. It is probably because of the later, I only ever saw dying as an event that had to be put up with before crossing over to an exciting new existence (or of course final oblivion if my beliefs were wrong).
In the reading, MacQuarrie points out how capricious death is appearing to strike in a seemingly random and wanton manner. Though some might be in denial, we are aware death will come to us even if we do not know when, where or how it will happen. I would agree that such uncertainty brings a sense of emptiness.
Yet, the reading also allowed me to see more clearly that ones dying does not necessarily need to be something “put up with”, but can also be some positively embraced while we live. For example, Heidegger bids us to live in realistic anticipation of death, which would invigorate us to live life with more zest and intensity. An example given by MacQuarrie is the first generation of Christians who were expecting the end of the age in their time, who he says were perhaps the most dynamic generation of human beings to have lived. I would agree with MacQuarrie who concludes, “a life that went on for even a hundred years and was mostly taken up with trivialities would be infinitely poorer than a life which had with zest and intensity realized some meaningful pattern, however brief its duration.”
Diametrically opposed to this positive view of death is Jean-Paul Sartre who is quoted as saying: “Death removes all meaning from life.” Such a statement does raise some serious questions about whether human life has any ultimate significance, or whether we are merely the by-product of forces which are godless. Yet in response, Heidegger points out that if life went on forever it would be equally meaningless, in that life would just be an endless concatenation of contingencies of no ultimate significance.
To end on a positive note, I believe Heidegger’s view of death to be much more gratifying as it upholds a much more affirmative role of death regardless of an ultimate significance. As Heidegger taught, it is precisely death that allows human life to be regarded as valuable and having significance.
© 2004 Scott Brisbane