Matters
of Life and Death
course
description.
We all
have to die sometime, but is that death good for us, bad for us, or nothing
to us? How is death defined, and what influences its definition? What do our
practices around dying and death — from the traditional to the cutting
edge of medical technology — say about our attitudes toward death? And
what implications does our mortality have for the meaningfulness of our lives?
This course will explore these questions by engaging with works in philosophy,
history, anthropology, literature, and film. It will consider historical and
cultural contexts ranging from ancient Rome to 19th century Europe, from the
Amazonian rainforest to the Himalayan foothills, from medical ethics committees
in the U.S. and Japan to the modern American funeral industry. This multidisciplinary
approach to the question of what our mortality means to us will give you experience
in using different kinds of texts to approach a question. Further, the course
will help you develop the critical thinking skills necessary to help you decide
how the recognition of your own mortality will influence your understanding
of your own life.
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