Tag Archives: death as the end

Death Frames the Story

Posted on July 7, 2026 by Abigail

In Death is But a Dream, the report of research by Christopher Kerr that I wrote about last week, the author’s interviews with the dying tell of reunions between the dying and those they cared about who had predeceased … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, Industrial Revolution, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mortality vs immortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Trauma, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged afterlife and judgment, afterlife and truthfulness, credibility of the dying in law, cultural implications of personal survival, cultural implications of surviving death, cynicism vs realistic idealism, cynicism vs self-empowerment, death and medieval jurisprudence, death and modernity, death and postmodern assumptions, death and standard medical view, death as the end, Death is But a Dream by Christopher Kerr, death not the end, death of a father, deathbed experiences, deathbed reunions, deathbed visions deemed hallucinations, deathbed visions medically viewed, deathbed witnesses, dying and romance, dying and true love, dying brings out the true self, dying brings out the truth, dying foregrounds character, evidences of survival, fantasies vs realistic hopes, feelings of the dying, implications of immortality, introducing one’s love to departed parents, introducing wife to deceased mother, last kiss, last words of the dying, legal credibility of the dying, life is not meaningless, lives as nonfiction stories, love does not die, lovers separated by death, meaninglessness no longer in style, research into death and dying, reunions of the dying and the dead, romance doesn’t die, surviving death and living meaningfully, surviving death is culturally respectable, the dying and divine judgment, the dying have nothing to lose, the dying presumed not to lie, true love and dying, Visions Trips and Crowded Rooms by David Kessler, witnesses to deathbed experience | 2 Comments

Grief, Martha Nussbaum, and Me

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Abigail

Abbie is away this week getting treatments in California. This column was originally posted on February 13, 2024, and continues to be timely. Recently, I’ve been reading a highly-regarded woman philosopher whose name is Martha C. Nussbaum. MCN is, along … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a mother's death, afterlife reunions, ancient philosophers, being born is hard, classicist, death as not the end, death as the end, deathbed farewell, demands interrupting grief, dream announcing a death, dream visit, dream visit from loved one, dreams with conflicting interpretations, dying as difficult, dying is hard, emotional realities, emotions as informative, emotions as instructive, Epicureans, fear of abandonment, filial piety, getting born as difficult, grief and being orphaned, grief and picking up the pieces, grief as abandonment, grief as anger, grieving a parent, honoring one's mother, hospice staff, intellectual pioneer, interpreting dreams, losing one's mother, love for one's mother, Marth Nussbaum's Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, Martha Nussbaum, missing the deathbed, mother/daughter relation, mourning and guilt, mourning and self-reproach, mourning one's mother, orphan syndrome, out of body experiences, paranormal vision, philosophy as therapy, precognitive dream visit, self-reproach, status of mothers, Stoics, the chores of mourning, the work of mourning, unreasonable anger, waiting for the afterlife, where I am death is not, woman academic, woman philosopher | Leave a comment

Grief, Martha Nussbaum, and Me

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Abigail

Recently, I’ve been reading a highly-regarded woman philosopher whose name is Martha C. Nussbaum. MCN is, along with other fields of her expertise, a scholar of ancient philosophers. She likes the Greek and Roman Epicureans and Stoics who wrote and … Continue reading →

My Mind Is Not My Brain

Posted on August 9, 2022 by Abigail

My Mind Is Not My Brain How much hangs on that denial – or on its contradictory, that my mind is my brain! If our minds are our brains, as I once thought, and as our educated contemporaries mostly still … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, medieval, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, past and future, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged ambition, anguish, anxiety, attitudes toward death, brain and memory storage, brain death, brain death and consciousness, cardiac arrest and consciousness, cardiac care, computers and brains, conscious state and neural correlates, cruelty, cynicism, dealing with death, death and denial, death as escape, death as the end, despair, Does God make a difference?, EEG, God hypothesis, God question, identity theory, intellectual courage, life review, localizing conscious experience in the brain, manipulativeness, Materialism, mind/body problem, MRI, NDE, NDE research, NDE studies, near death experience, oblivion, paradigm shift, PET, Philosophical Materialism, physicalism, Pim Van Lommel, Pim Van Lommel's Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, placebo effect, prejudice, reductionism and culture, reincarnation, right pathway, search for purpose, success fixation, surviving brain death, surviving death, terminal lucidity, the absurd, verifiable afterlife reports, willful blindness | 6 Comments

Wingeing, Death and Debility

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Abigail

Wingeing, Death and Debility Years ago, I was in the Australian Blue Mountains, climbing the rockiest, thorniest, steepest wilderness trail that I could ever hope never to find. We were a troop of philosophers from Sydney University’s Department of General … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, books, chivalry, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged afterlife evidence, Australia, Blue Mountains of Australia, bush walk, Christian salvation, conversion, conversion to Judaism, death as the end, death of friends, departed friends, evidence of things unseen, fashionable doubt, fashionable opinion, fashionable skepticism, heaven, how to die, how to live, intelligent hope, kvetching, mikvah, mortality, outdoorsmen, philosophic friendship, Philosophy Department, preparation for death, remembering the departed, rock climbing, self-knowledge, Socrates, soul and body, Spinoza, stiff upper lip, stoicism, surviving death, Sydney University, the afterlife, The New York Book Review, The New York Review of Books, the next life, vale of tears, wilderness trail, wingeing, women friends | 2 Comments

“Proof of Heaven?”

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Abigail

“Proof of Heaven?” Epicurus, ancient atomist and empiricist that he was, taught that we human beings are composed of large numbers of atoms, each one too tiny to see. So, he maintained, is everything else. When such collections of … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, novels, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, promissory notes, propaganda, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic presentations, ancient atomism, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, ants, atomism, brain death, brain surgery, coma, comforts of religion, cultural paradigm, death, death as the end, death is not, determinism, dissolution, divine beauty, divine light, divine Love, E. coli bacteria, Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into the Afterlife, enjoying solitude, Epicurus, Esquire magazine, fear of death, Harvard Medical School, heart death, heavenly support, hyper-reality, identity theory, journalistic expose, journey to the after-life, kabbalist, medical credentials, medical warrant, medically inexplicable recovery, mind as brain, moral struggle, near death experience, neocortex, neuroscientists, Omaha Nebraska, paradigm change, physical anxiety, physical vulnerability, received opinion, scientific consensus, scientific fact, Scott Wade, Sioux City Iowa, solitude., stress fracture, surviving brain death, surviving heart death, total death, Ultrasound Surgery Foundation in Charlottesville VA, world of action | Leave a comment

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