Death Is More Universal than Life - Essay Example

Death is More Universal than Life The nature of death has always interested multiple philosophers, theologians, and even ordinary everymen. However, as Alan Sachs has reasonably noted: “Death is more universal than life” and this claim definitely makes sense, because what lives will be dead one day and what exists will be obligatory discontinued. When we consider something, it frequently happens that we can’t give any definition to it, but we always can say what it isn’t. The same happens with the concept of life, as many philosophers have been arguing on the matter of the notion of life and its attributes; however, the only notion that seems to be the most acceptable lies in negation. Thus life is not death and this is the only definition that everyone would agree with. The problem in defining life lies in the fact that life has multiple implementations and manifestations, so no one can definitely say that life is this or that. Hence, we can’t say that life has obligatory attributes like, for example, motion, because there are things and living creatures in this life that don’t move. Although life doesn’t have any distinctive absolute attributes, it obligatory has an ending which is death. Unlike life, death has a definite notion, which means the end of life. Even though these ends of lives might happen in different ways, still they all will be ends. Perhaps, the difference between life and death (notwithstanding these two notions are opposite) in fact lies in different levels of consideration. Life is a process of existing; hence, as far as this is a process that contains multiple other processes that are the parts of life, it is impossible to give one definition to the combination of processes called “life”. On the contrary, death is the last destination of life and nothing but this. It is the terminus ed quem (stop point) of the process of life, which catches up everyone and everything. The truth of life is universal and it is in the fact that whatever happens and whoever lives, everything eventually dies. This idea is perfectly described in the book of Ecclesiastes, who claims that he had gone through a lot and had seen many things in his life, however, he realized that although people can live different lives and they indeed can be wise and fools, but all of them die and this is inevitable for everything that exists (The New Jerusalem Bible, Eccles. 2. 15-16). The definition of death makes it possible to say that death is universal because it concerns everyone and everything that exists. However, the claim that there wouldn’t be any death without life is also reasonable. As far as people are intelligent creatures, they are able to analyze the life-and-death dilemma and create definitions to different concepts. People are worrying about death and are afraid of it, which means that they make death something bad and horrible. When, in fact, in objective world life is being changed with death in order to be transformed into something new. A person is being born in order to live in this world. One lives his own life, becomes an exceptional personality, does different things and eventually dies. This pattern works for everyone without any exceptions. However, in terms of physical matter, human body and the matter that it is made of transforms into something else, changing its form and starts living somewhere else. Human soul also doesn’t goes to nowhere but joins another kind of life, which is afterlife. These processes make death not only the end but also a new beginning. As far as every creature, every thing, and whatever exists come from something, they have their beginnings. In order for something to exist it must have some predicates of its existence. For example, in order for a human being to be born, there must be a male and a female, people made of matter and souls. These people create a new human being that has never existed before; however, this human being is made of the matter that has already existed in this world – some flesh and blood, also created by somebody. Thus every life has its beginning and this is what makes life universal as well; however, every life has its beginning in something that is made of something that has been once dead. Another question is whether there would be any sense in this life if it was eternal and if death didn’t exist? Probably no, because everything should have its end whatsoever and this is what makes life possible and filled with some essence. Considering death, people often face with some feeling of obscurity and ignorance. This is the main reason why most of us are afraid of death, as nobody could know what exactly happens afterwards and what can we expect from the afterlife. We believe that our souls go to some place, where we meet the Lord. However, the imagination of the afterlife we have might have nothing in common with our prophane beliefs and we might not even be able to imagine what really happens when we die. Death is the most transcendent thing that human beings can’t perceive while being alive. Another aspect of universality of death can be considered within the scopes of our consideration of God. Philosophers and theologians of all times have claimed that the only way we can perceive God is by finding Him in all the manifestations of His creation, which means that God is everywhere, in all things and living creatures. Thus this is what makes Him universal. However, the same thing we can say about death as well. We can’t perceive death because of its transcendent nature and logical absence in life (as life and death are antinomies). However, we are absolutely sure about the fact that death exists (despite this assertion is being a paradox), because we can see how the creatures that used to be alive lose their lives and become dead. Although we can find death everywhere, we can’t catch it, because it is not what actually exists, but it is something that we know we all will face with one day. The fact that this world consists of external things, which appear and pass away, has always been quite obvious for everyone. People are used to understanding that there are no eternal things in this world and even the things that seem impossible to be demolished eventually also come to their ends. However, if to acknowledge this belief and get a better look at the fact that things are external, the only universal thing that we can notice in this world is death, demolition, vanishing etc. Thus the only thing that we can definitely say that it exists is an end. In the first book of “Metaphysics” Aristotle claimed that there is no way that antinomies would simultaneously exist in the same thing. However, the entire life contradicts this assertion and contains death, which means that every beginning a priori has the potential to be dead. Each human is being born with the inner potential to become dead one day and this antinomy of life and death lives inside each of us throughout our entire periods of existence. Hence, the discussion of what is more universal either life or death can be easily resolved. As far as we can only analyze those things that exist or have ever existed, life and its manifestations is the only thing that we know. However, the only thing that we find in common in all living creatures and things that exist is their finitude, which makes death the most universal thing ever. Works Cited The New Jerusalem Bible. Ed. Henry Wansbrough. New York: Doubleday, 1985. Print. Aristotle, , and W D. Ross. Aristotles Metaphysics. Oxford [England: Clarendon Press, 1981. Print. Read More