We are like the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan, who wrote in his suicide note: "Everyone dies, but I always thought I wouldn't."

< p> The great statement of the melancholic Danish philosopher S?ren Kierkegaard. He believed that the only way to transcend death anxiety is to experience death.

part 1 Death, what to do?

Do you have the feeling that you want to leave, but you also want to stay, but you also want to leave? --Jimmy Durant

In the face of the abyss of death, be responsible for living a meaningful life.

Some people are overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities: our time-limited physical bodies cannot handle the infinite choices that arise in our daily lives and imaginations. Too little time and too much to do.

Only when we dare to experience the anxiety of knowing that life will not last forever can we experience transcendence and come into contact with infinity. In the words of Gestalt Psychology, non-existence is the necessary soil for existence, allowing us to see existence. Only when we are willing to give up our illusions and admit our own loss, helplessness, and fear can we escape ourselves, break away from false security, and prepare ourselves for what Kierkegaard calls a "leap of faith."

Schopenhauer’s views on death are indeed interesting. He believes that life is a process of constant death. If you think about the past seriously, you will find that it is a warehouse of death, a collection of events that no longer exist—gone forever, irrevocably, dead.

Schopenhauer said that we are greedy for life because we have a strange "will to live", which is completely contrary to our ultimate interests and prevents us from embracing our true destiny-death.

He said death was a welcome relief from life.

He quoted Byron's poem as evidence: Count the joyful moments in life, count the days uncorrupted by pain, and you will know that no matter who you are, you would have been better off never having been born.

He had read early European translations of Buddhist scriptures and agreed with the Buddhist view that all living beings suffer. However, like the Buddhists, he believed that it did not matter whether one suffered or not, because the ordinary world was just an illusion. What is truly real is what he calls "will," the blind, irrational, and purposeless force that makes the entire universe and everything in it work. In short, what is there to be pessimistic about as a human being? The things that cause us problems are inherently unreal

For Schopenhauer, living in this world full of illusions, individuals will separate from the transcendent will and begin to have their own lives.

Without non-existence, there is no existence; similarly, without existence, there is no non-existence. And this presence and absence conflict with each other. This is basic space warfare.

Thinking existence explicitly requires ignoring existence to the extent of thinking of existence only as beings, and of beings as beings, as is true of all metaphysics. ——Martin Heidegger, "Time and Being".

If I allow death into my life, accept it, face it, I can escape the fear of death and the triviality of life - then I will be free to be myself. ——"From Socrates to Sartre: Philosophical Explorations".

?Heidegger emphasized: Only humans will realize that they will eventually die, cats will not.

Mortality is unique and important to the human condition, which is where we are. But many people suppress this awareness of death and make it vague. In other words, we live in denial of death.

According to Heidegger, such a life is not life at all. We cannot fully realize life if we are not aware of our impending death.

He believes that the anxiety of anticipating death will not only not interfere with life, but will also bring "unshakable happiness."

Perhaps the worst news for Heidegger is that our souls will live forever.

Heidegger believed that people should live in the shadow of death.

Mahatma Gandhi once said: "Live as though you were going to die tomorrow. Study as though you would live forever."

This is the same as dying young. The famous movie star James Dean said exactly the same: “Follow your dreams like you’ll live forever.

Cherish life as if you were going to die today. "

In Rob Reiner's comedy "The Bucket List," two terminally ill men in their 60s escape from the cancer ward to complete what they must complete before they die. . This is not an exploration of the soul, but a life facing death. The protagonists of "The Bucket List" are not contrived characters who want to live as if they are dying.

But they are really dying. For Heidegger, it makes no difference: we are all going to die, and it doesn’t matter when exactly.

Sartre believed that the meaning of death is that “the for-itself becomes forever fully integrated into the past. . ”

What Jean-Paul calls “for-itself” refers to human consciousness. He calls it “for-itself” because it is not a thing. If it were a thing, it would become “in-itself” .

Sartre means that human beings have no "essence" and no preset purpose.

Sartre believes that an important difference between human beings and rubber ducks is that they are human beings. You can choose what you want to be and create your own essence.

But the key is that human beings are self-made and self-created existences, not self-existent, and not created for a specific purpose.

Or, at least, that's how humans should be, always free to create themselves. However, most of us have an annoying habit of wanting to be something - not a table or a wall. chandelier or bathtub, but instead become some kind of human character. For example, we will regard our profession, nationality, or reputation on the golf course as our identity. In this way, we will become inauthentic and become zombies. This is the case with Sartre's famous waiter. He believed that being a waiter was his essence. The young man was too stupid. He did not see the possibility of freedom, that is, the possibility of transcending himself.

Possibilities exist until he dies. After we die, we become things and then have an indelible essence, a dead body.

part 2 Eternity, appearing unexpectedly

? Does eternity exist in the great afterlife? Or is it lurking around us? If so, who has time to realize eternity?

Eternity is now, not after death. Tillich is an expert in existential Christian theology. He believes that eternal life is not an endless continuation of life like the American TV series "Law and Order". In the eyes of Tillich and Heidegger, it is no different from hell.

In fact, eternity is in every moment, a fragment of time. Eternity is the present moment, the eternal present.

Human beings are different from stones. Human beings can look at time and look at it. The big picture, including the end of life, and therefore experiencing anxiety and despair

So for Tillich, immortality is not a life that never ends, but a life lived in the eternal present.

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?Konisberg said: “Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at the same time. ”

“Jumping out of time” should not be confused with “jumping out of chronology,” the latter being a popular narrative technique used in films such as “Memento” and “Mulholland Drive.”

Although reversing the order of time can lead to interesting problems such as confusion of cause and effect and how to construct memory, it is still within the structure of linear time, and stepping out of time is to regard the entire time dimension as only one. Dimensions.

Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote in his influential work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: “If we understand eternity not as the infinite continuation of time, but If it is understood as timeless, then those who are alive at this moment will live forever. "

The "timelessness" in Ludwig's mouth seems to mean: "It has nothing to do with the time dimension, or is outside the time dimension. "The "now" in which we exist has no temporality, it is not "part" of time. Ludwig concluded that eternal life belongs to those who are alive at this moment.

Psychologically and spiritually , it can be difficult to get in touch with the eternal present. We are often obsessed with the past, or looking forward to the future, so that we never take the time to live in the present.

Zeno, the author of the Achilles and the Tortoise Paradox, believes. , time can be divided infinitely.

In the words of contemporary British playwright and wise man Michael Foley: "Ah, now! This strange time is the strangest time of all time, the time that is always now... Read By the 'in' tense of 'now', 'now' has become history."

Fortunately, William James provided a more practical understanding of "now". He was a trustworthy pragmatist, American philosopher and psychologist of the late 19th century. He calls the present "the specious present" to refer to our misunderstanding of the present, that is, we think that the "now" is small but has content, and is brief but lasting. In fact, the present does not exist. The present is only the boundary between the past and the future, and the past and the future do not exist in a real sense, at least not now. In other words, "now" is a subjective construct that we use to record our experience of time.

The mystical poet William Blake wrote: One grain of sand is a world, one flower is a heaven, hands hold infinity, and a moment is eternity.

Don’t enter the beautiful night gracefully, the old man should also roar and burn in his old age, and face the disappearance of the light angrily and angrily.

- Dylan Thomas

part 3 Immortality, the old-fashioned way - Soul Train

Thales, viewed the soul as the force that propels the physical body into motion

Plato spelled out a panoramic view of the soul. He made a threefold distinction between the soul: reason, passion (or will), and desire. Reason is the highest and can communicate with eternal ideas and forms, such as beauty, wisdom and triangles. Plato believed that all imperfect triangles in the world obtained their triangularity from this ideal triangle.

Will is the irrational part of the soul, but it is higher than desire. If the will is properly controlled, it will tend toward reason. Desire, on the other hand, resists reason and pulls us toward sensual desires, which bring endless troubles.

Philosopher Woody Allen pointed out: "The soul embraces higher desires, such as poetry and philosophy, while the body enjoys all pleasures." But Plato opposed this view. He believed that although Desire has all the fun, but it is also part of the soul.

For Plato, the ultimate goal of the soul is to eliminate the essence of sense and pursue the knowledge of form. Immortality belongs only to the rational part. In other words, thinking about triangles is better than indulging in sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Aristotle’s views on the soul are slightly different from Plato’s, but his conclusions are quite similar. He divided the soul into three parts: vegetable soul, animal soul and reason. The plant soul will bring the same physical and chemical changes to humans as animals and plants; the animal soul will create the ability to move, allowing humans to experience feelings unique to animals; rationality is the exclusive soul part of humans, animals Neither plants nor plants have it.

Aristotle further divided rationality into passive rationality (the ability to perceive) and active rationality (the ability to think, conceive, and imagine the goddess Aphrodite in the bedroom). Aristotle believed that active reason is the eternal part of the soul.

Aristotle believed that active reason is the eternal part of the soul.

Reincarnation only allows our souls to enter another round of struggle and purification until we realize the true universal self. To reach our destination, we must descend the gravel road of multiple deaths and reincarnations, become one with our universal self, and ride on forever in an SUV.

?In the 17th century, René Descartes, the father of modern Western philosophy, proposed mind-matter dualism, believing that mind and matter (including the brain) are two completely different entities. Different rules govern different fields, and there is absolutely no difference.

?The 17th-century philosopher and German rationalist Leibniz said that mind and matter have no relationship at all. He said that mind and matter are parallel, like two clocks with the same time but no relationship.

The 19th century evolutionist T. H. Huxley stated that the mind is just a side effect of the body's functioning, an "epiphenomenon" like a shadow on the ground.

part 4 Life after Death: Postcards from Heaven

Materialists - philosophers such as Lucretius and Thomas Hobbes who believe that there is only the physical world Be real and want the truth to remain the same. For James, true (correct) theories are useful theories that are not only consistent with all known facts, but also provide people with a way to discover the truth. If the future conflicts with today's theories, no problem: We will acknowledge these conflicts by declaring those theories to be false. At the same time, if a hypothesis guides our actions well enough, then it is enough to be called a "truth" by James.

According to James's epistemology, denying the possibility that the soul will survive the death of the body is dogmatic materialism: it closes the door to the discovery of new truths.

In addition, James also defended the "will to believe", especially on issues of religious belief. What James means by "the will to believe" is "the right to believe anything that can tempt our will." Although we have no right to believe things that are contrary to known facts, when it comes to religious beliefs or free will beliefs, the known facts are not enough to determine whether we should hold beliefs. We can choose the method that suits us best. James humorously explained the will of faith in his diary: "My first act of free will was to believe in free will."

part 5?

?"Really serious There is only one philosophical question, and that is suicide. To judge whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy." - Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus"

Al means. , if a person realizes that he can choose to commit suicide or continue to live, but does not choose suicide like you, then he has consciously chosen life and taken the first step to take full responsibility for his own existence. He exists because he chooses to continue to exist. In a sense, he began a lifelong mission of self-creation.

Suicide is a failure of moral courage, an abdication of the responsibility to embrace the absurdity of life.

The ancient Stoics believed that the purpose of life is "abundance" or "existence in harmony with nature."

Cicero said: "When one If a person has the advantage of living in harmony with nature, he is suitable to continue living; if the situation is just the opposite, he should leave this world."

Seneca wrote: "A wise person should. Live as long as you want, not as long as you can... He should always focus on the quality of life rather than the length of it. Once many events in his life cause him trouble and destroy his inner peace, he I will regain my freedom through suicide. ”

?I just regret that I only have one life to sacrifice for my country. ——Nathan Hale

?Epicurus did not think death was a big deal. He wrote: "Death means nothing to us. Because as long as we exist, death has not yet come. And when death comes, we will no longer exist." So don't worry, live happily.

part 6 Biotechnology: Resolving the Pressure of Death

We agree with Woody Allen. He once said a famous saying: "I don't hope to gain immortality through my works, I hope Really immortal."

How far is eternity? Once again, we asked Professor Allen for some insight: "Eternity is very long, especially toward the end." What Woody means is that when you think you are approaching the end of eternity, eternity will be extended again.

Comedian Stephen. Wright pokes fun at the oatmeal-eating baby boomers: "I feel sorry for the people who don't drink or do drugs, because one day they're going to be lying in a hospital bed waiting to die and not even know why. "

Sir Bernard Williams, the 21st century Cambridge moral philosopher, proposed in the article "The Markopoulos Affair: Reflections on the Boredom of Eternal Life" that if life is to remain interesting, death is necessary of.

Williams’ reference was Czech writer Karel Capek’s play “The Markopoulos Affair” and Czech composer Leo? Janacek’s opera based on it. .

In the play, the heroine gains a very long life (342 years or more) through the elixir of life. But at the end of the story, she decides not to continue extending her life because she realizes that eternal life will only bring endless indifference. Williams wrote: "Her endless life became a state of boredom, indifference, and indifference. Everything was lifeless."

Williams said that a good life is A life that ends before repetition and boredom inevitably set in.

Professor Allen said: "Nietzsche said that we will repeat our lives forever."

Nietzsche's superhuman heroism is reflected in his ability to return in worthless eternity. Let yourself be empowered in front of you.

For us, Eternal Return is more like "Groundhog Day". The profound dialogue in the film shocked many viewers: Bill Murray, the character in the film, said: "If you are in it every day What do you do if you do the same thing and nothing you do matters? ”

Clines proposes that we extend our lives not by increasing them, but by accelerating ours. Time awareness so that there are more "moments" in each second.

Our present is always intertwined with memories of the past and prospects for the future. In time, we experience ourselves as a continuum.