Secular and Buddhist Meanings of Death and Finitude
This subproject contributes to the general project ‘Humanism in Dialogue’ by exploring which are the non-dogmatic, liberal, so-called humanistic elements, concepts, practices, traditions, etc., in various world-views and religions with regard to the interpretation of death and finitude.
This project is based on former studies of the researcher in which she analyses how experiences around death can shatter the meaning of life for individuals. Different world-views give different interpretations of experiences around death, which can help people to restore their world-view, or find new meaning (Anbeek, 1994). Living in modern societies brings forward specific questions with regard to giving meaning to life, which makes that traditional world-views have to tune in to these special problems and reshape their traditional answers (Anbeek 2003, 2006). The comparison of different world-views can be based on how how they interpret existential experiences of human life, and help to find meaning. In this comparison it is important to distinguish the different dimensions of world-views (philosophical, narrative, experience, social, material), and also the gender perspective, which is a very important factor in the process of giving meaning (Anbeek 2009).
The study which is now going on explores how six modern philosophy’s deal with existential questions of death and finitude. The philosophy’s studied are: Existential psychotherapy, Art-of-living, Women and surviving, philosophy’s based on Near-death experiences, Western Buddhist interpretations of death en finitude, and Philosophy of nature. Existential psychotherapy claims that life can only be lived authentically if death and finitude are confronted by the individual. Authentic life is characterized by the heroic attitude of fulfilling all your possibilities with regard to the finitude of these possibilities. Art-of-living claims to be less heroic, it proposes a life-style that shows moderation and limited mastery of the problems of life. In the chapter on Women and surviving the work of Anna Enquist, Kristien Hemmerechts and Patricia de Martelaere is studied with regard to the question how they deal with the loss of loved ones. Near-death experiences studies the work of the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel. The answers he gives on the problem of life and death are analysed and questioned. The chapter on Western Buddhism deals with views of the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Buddhism on Death. The last chapter studies which answers philosophers of nature give on death. In a conclusive chapter the different answers are compared.
dr. C.W. Anbeek, University for Humanistics (UvH)
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