How Ought We To Live?

This is specifically referencing the Conclusions to your Stevenson and Barry texts, but you aren't limited to that text in building your answer.

Does Death Give Life Meaning?

*new* one week after the Boston Marathon Bombing
A Salon.com retrospective
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/20/across_america_a_week_of_chaos_horror___and_hope/

What do you think after our course? Use the last chapters of both books as well as other course materials and discussions.

Your Obituary

Review the Preface and pp. 6-13 of Barry and The Death of Ivan Illyich.  What is the meaning of life?  What are you not realizing about life?  How might an examination of life inform your living?  Answer this question, in part, by thinking about your own obituary.  What do you need to do now in order to have that obituary?  Feel free to reference Barry, Stevenson & Tolstoy in your response.

Philosophy in the World

What experiences in your life are hard to reconcile with our course material?  (Be specific in identifying the material).  Why is it hard?  What else could you do to square your thinking/philosophizing and your lived experience?

More Philosophy?  Would you take an additional philosophy course if money/time weren’t factors?  Explain.

Death Cafes

If we were to (at least theoretically) organize a death cafe, what would we do?

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/08/173808940/death-cafes-breathe-life-into-conversations-about-dying

Grief

Any ideas about how to support someone who is in grief?  Here are some stories to consider.

Audio stories about grief:
http://www.npr.or
g/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=162232867&m=162232862

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=162304927&m=162304922

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

What was your initial reaction to the film?  What was it at the end?

How does the film relate to the course?  Does it change your opinion on anything?  Individual choice, end-of-life decisions?

April Current Events

9April13  After Years Of Struggle, Veteran Chooses To End His Life

http://m.npr.org/news/front/176509136?start=20
9April13  LA Times - How not to say the wrong thing

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-75241622/

7April13 Matthew Warren's Suicide
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/06/us/california-warren-suicide/?hpt=hp_inthenews

8April13 As Palliative Care Need Grows, Specialists Are Scarce

http://m.npr.org/news/front/176121044?start=15

Atheism

We've talked about atheism before (see earlier posts), but we haven't directly talked about the New Atheists who speak directly against religion and base their claims in science.  Here's an article about them, which addresses their apparent collective dislike for Islam.  Comments?
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/30/dawkins_harris_hitchens_new_atheists_flirt_with_islamophobia/

Good Friday & Easter

Christians are the only major religious people to have a symbol of death represent them.  Comments on the holiday?  What it means to you and/or what you think it means to others?  Questions you have?

Having grown up in the Northern hemisphere, I've always associated Easter with new life, but I was reminded by someone over the weekend that it is fall in the southern hemisphere.  What do you think about that?

*new 3Apr13* Also, consider this essay about maintaining one's Catholic identity:
http://nyti.ms/14waFGx
Can reflective and honest intellectuals actually believe in the church’s teachings?

PAS

from Sam:
a story about a doctor with ALS who will be able to partake of PAS

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/health/policy/in-ill-doctor-a-surprise-reflection-of-who-picks-assisted-suicide.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

Value of Suffering

What value, if any, is there in suffering?

The Death of Ivan Ilych

(Emily will post some questions here)

Darwinian Theories

Pick a few to answer
* Can all animal behavior be explained in terms of instinct or simple learning? (As opposed to higher order, reflective thinking?
* Are humans naturally / innately aggressive like Konrad Lorenz claims?  Bobbie asks you to consider The Lord of the Flies, The Road, Walking Dead, among other books and films as you answer.
* How do you think language works?  Do you agree with Chomsky that there is an innate capacity to process language?
* Can the theory of evolution explain everything?  Kindness, altruism, culture?  What would E. O. Wilson say?
* Can belief in God/religion and evolution mutually exist?
* How does natural selection support (or not) the "gender division" and how does it compare to natural selection's contribution (or not) to racism?
* Can you think of an instance that supports Skinner's theory that behavior arises from natural selection?  An example from history?  From everyday life?

March Current Events

*new* 16March13  Young Mother Kills Herself and almost her son
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/nyregion/son-survives-cynthia-wachenheims-suicide-jump-in-harlem.html?pagewanted=2&src=recg


NYTimes: The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking
The Germans had vastly more work camps and ghettos than anyone knew. 
http://nyti.ms/XLPwR9

*posted 13Mar13* The Geography of Gun Deaths
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/the-geography-of-gun-deaths/69354/

Funeral practices

Cremation is less expensive
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/us/in-economic-downturn-survivors-turning-to-cremations-over-burials.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Advance Directives / Get Your S%$* Together

*newly posted* 13Mar13
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/october-21-2011/advance-directives/9748/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/opinion/taking-responsibility-for-death.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120331

Get Your S%$* Together
website for advance planning
http://getyourshittogether.org/

Interview
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/12/174014442/from-grief-comes-a-mission-to-make-estate-planning-less-daunting

Conversations Before Dying
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/april-27-2012/conversations-before-dying/10846/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

Email Reminders Help
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE90302O20130104?irpc=932 

Human Nature

The Minimally Conscious
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/can-ambien-wake-minimally-conscious.html?pagewanted=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210

Unconscious biases and other research on human cognition
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/opinion/brooks-who-you-are.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212&_r=0

Science of Perception
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/clothes-and-self-perception.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120403

TED Talk about emotion, trust, & morality
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html#.TrCSacxAccs.mailto

Chpt 10 Darwinism

This link is about God & science, so tangentially related.
http://life.salon.com/2011/10/02/how_science_and_faith_coexist/singleton/?mobile.html

Christopher Hitchens on cancer & mortality
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/books/christopher-hitchens-on-writing-mortality-and-cancer.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28

Dying

*new* video on dying "Can We Live Forever?"
From a student in another class who saw this video in a psychology of aging class.  Its called "Can we live forever?"  
http://m.video.pbs.org/video/1754457671/

13Mar13  NYTimes: For a Hospice Pioneer, Still a Tough Call
For more than 25 years, Paul Brenner led nonprofit hospice organizations. Yet when his health faltered, choosing to become a hospice patient himself proved unexpectedly difficult.  http://nyti.ms/13Cg6DF

  13Mar13 Love That Endured Alzheimer's Ends In 2 Deaths
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/us/love-that-endured-alzheimers-ends-in-2-deaths.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120331

  13Mar13 Caring for the Dying
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/magazine/the-topic-of-cancer.html

  13Mar13 Looking for a Place to Die
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/opinion/looking-for-a-place-to-die.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

 13Mar13 dying
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/03/30/early-spring-vignette-walking-home/ 

Top Five Regrets of the Dying
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying

How Doctors Die
http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/ideas/nexus/

Happiness :)

*newly posted* 1April 13 (not a joke!) Review of 3 books about happiness
 http://www.salon.com/2013/03/31/the_myths_of_happiness_partner/


 13Mar13 "A Serving of Gratitude Brings Health Dividends"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/a-serving-of-gratitude-brings-healthy-dividends.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210

13Mar13 Questions to develop success
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/10-questions-that-create-success.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

13Mar13 The Neuroscience of Happiness
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/28/the_neuroscience_of_happiness/singleton/?mobile.html

NYTimes: Secret Ingredient for Success
Self-examination is the key to noodle-making and other accomplishments.  http://nyti.ms/VPsPyq

Taking Email Vacations Can Reduce Stress
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/taking-e-mail-vacations-can-reduce-stress-study-says/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120505

Eastern Religions

What questions/comments do you have about any of the eastern religions (Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism) we've studied?

Here's some info on the "New Confucianism" that Yip referred to in class this afternoon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Confucianism

here's a book review from the Independent on a book about the New Confucianism
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/chinas-new-confucianism-by-daniel-a-bell-841037.html

Suicide

What other facts about suicide can you gather for this post?

*newly posted 13Mar13* Suicides Eclipse War Deaths for US Troops
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/us/suicides-eclipse-war-deaths-for-us-troops.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120609

Self-Immolation as Protest
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/world/asia/as-self-immolations-continue-some-tibetans-ask-is-it-worth-it.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130203

*newly posted 13Mar13* http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/world/asia/in-self-immolations-signs-of-new-turmoil-in-tibet.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120323 


NYTimes: As Families Change, Korea’s Elderly Are Turning to Suicide
The number of suicides among people 65 and older has nearly quadrupled in recent years, ranking the country’s rate of such deaths among the highest in the developed world.  http://nyti.ms/15lJWeA

Guns & Suicide
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/to-lower-suicide-rates-new-focus-turns-to-guns.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130214&_r=0

extra credit: Thomas More's Utopia

There's an interesting project recently created which has made More's Utopia available online and open for collective comments.  I'll give you 5 points of extra credit for reading the entire book and commenting online (comments don't have to be extensive but do have to demonstrate that you've read the entire book).

Due:  15 April

Afterlife & Our Digital Lives

What questions or comments do you have about "the afterlife"?  Do you really think it is worth thinking about or should we focus more on the here & now?  Explain.


What Happens to Our Digital Lives When We Die? | PBS NewsHour
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/what-happens-to-our-online-lives-when-we-die.html

re: Chpt 6 The Bible

(from Morrison & Mink presentation)
1. Do you believe women should be given the chance to be ordained?  Why or why not?
2. What does it mean to be a Christian?  Why is this question important?  (see separate blog entry on being a "good" Catholic)
3. What did you think about the St. John's illuminated Bible?

"good" Catholic (Jew, Muslim, etc.)

What does it mean to be a "good" Catholic?  Must one adhere to all of the orthodoxy?  Can you be a "cafeteria" Catholic?

We could have similar discussions about being a good Jew or Muslim, except I don't think we know enough about those traditions to be able to know what might be common practice and how that aligns or differs with doctrine & orthodoxy.

And for our nonbelievers:
NYTimes: The Way of the Agnostic
What do believers have to believe? http://nyti.ms/WQ7GzK

New religious service opportunities

Are you interested in seeing how others worship?  Perhaps someone in class would allow you to come with him/her to his/her worship?  Perhaps a small group is interested in a different tradition?  This can be your contemplative challenge for March.  Let me know if you want to go to temple or mosque, and perhaps I'll go with you.  Be especially alert to the Easter services at the end of March if you have not gone to those before:  you really will learn a great deal about the Christian beliefs about death from them.

The Self (Barry Chpt 5)

Comment on a few of these prompts:

• Spiritual Needs of the Dying. This is related to an earlier prompt about the importance of faith in human nature.  Question:  does everyone have spiritual needs?  Even atheists?  Even the dying?  Even children?  Please explore.
• Are we dualistic creatures?  Do we have minds separate from bodies as Descartes argued?  Or is that a folk tale we tell ourselves for comfort?  What is the mind-body problem?  Do souls exist?  If yes, how does that fit into human metaphysics?  Which of the many possible philosophical positions detailed in Barry's Chpt 5 is most comforting / makes the most sense to you?
• Does one need to have a conception of a personal soul for immortality to make sense?  Explain.

Current Events (Feb'13)

*new* posted 27Feb13 Living with a dying spouse (fair warning: it is hard to read)
"What he said before he died"
January 28, 2013 08:00 PM | LEE ANN COX  View full article at Salon.com

Mobile reminders for end-of-life conversations
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE90302O20130104?irpc=932

*new* 25Feb13  NYTimes: China: 2 Tibetan Monks Carry Out Fatal Protests
Two Tibetan monks have died in separate self-immolation protests in Tibetan regions of western China since Sunday, according to reports on Monday by two Tibet advocacy groups. http://nyti.ms/Xbftvm

 http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/34325/title/Bad-Blood/
 20Feb13

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/vermont-senate-advances-bill-for-cases-in-which-patients-choose-to-end-lives.html?ref=policy

Vermont: Senate Advances Bill for Cases in Which Patients Choose to End Lives

The State Senate gave final approval on Thursday to a measure that would exempt doctors from criminal or civil liability when treating terminally ill patients who choose to end their lives. Any person present during the self-administration of a lethal dose of legally prescribed medication would also be exempted. The legislation, known as a “death with dignity” measure, was an amendment replacing a longer bill, modeled on Oregon’s end-of-life law, that supporters said included more safeguards for patients. The bill now goes to the House, which supporters hope will put forth a bill more like the original legislation. Passage would make Vermont the first state to approve an end-of-life measure by legislative act alone. Both Oregon and Washington have end-of-life laws that were approved by voters.

18Feb13   NYTimes: Country Star Mindy McCready Dies
Mindy McCready, who hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died Sunday in Arkansas in an apparent suicide. She was 37.
http://nyti.ms/UwKATp 

14Feb13
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/to-lower-suicide-rates-new-focus-turns-to-guns.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130214&_r=0

http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/ideas/nexus/

Could I be ok if I died today?

This week's exercise:
Every morning think about this question.  What would you need (if anything) to change about your life to be okay with dying today?

*updated 13Mar13* Sartre & Existentialism 101 (Emily C.)

*newly posted 13Mar13* Satire on Sartre & Camus
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/sartre-and-camus-in-new-york/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120716 

*newly posted 13Mar13* Essay on Camus
http://chronicle.com/article/Camuss-Restless-Ghost/135874/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en



video on Sartre from 3 part "Human, All too human" BBC series
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAMCZKDgL04 


Emily will post some basic information about existentialism here, and perhaps a few questions for your discussion pleasure.

Additionally, what questions do you have specifically about Sartre?

Prompts for discussion of Sartre:

• What is human freedom?  Is it important?  Why?
• Why is choice at the center of Sartre's philosophy?  What is Authenticity?
• What is bad faith?  Why does Sartre label it "bad"?
• Are we always the best judge of our selves and our motivations? 
• Have you ever thought about killing yourself?  (This isn't asking if you are suicidal, but if you've had those types of thoughts, do please come talk to me).  Under what circumstances?  When crossing a bridge perhaps?  or walking near heavy automobile traffic?  or after watching a difficult movie?  after a natural disaster or family tragedy?  What would it be like?  Why don't most of us actually fling ourselves out of window or balconies, even if most of us have thought about what that would be like?

Consciousness of D (Chpt 3)

Address one or two of the prompts below:

Is it better to face our mortality head on or try to avoid it?

What do the existentialists say?

What is it like to die?  If someone is dying, can she really explain it to you?  (see NYTimes article about dying nurse:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/us/fatally-ill-and-making-herself-the-lesson.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 )

What does it mean to "live in the light of death"?

Historical Attitudes on D&D (Chpt 2)

Do you think our modern U.S. attitude toward death & dying needs adjustment?  Are there lessons from the past which we would benefit from applying today?  Refer to Chpt 2:  Death in the West for your answer, as well as other books and films if you like.

Religion

*13Mar13* Religion & Politics
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/21/149098695/pew-more-americans-see-too-much-religious-talk-in-politics

Is faith a fundamental part of human life?  A necessary part?  How do (if at all) faith & reason interact for you?  How do (if at all) science and faith interact for you?  Reference the "Historical Interlude" in your Ten Theories text.

You might talk about your own or your family's religious traditions, especially those surrounding D&D.  I'll also remind you of this later in the term when we get closer to Easter, in case you'd like to comment on those traditions.

Animals and Rationality

*new* 13Mar13
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/what-animals-thinking.html


Well, if this isn't perfect timing.  Video about a dolphin asking a diver for help:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139493n&tag=api

What other instances of animal rationality can you think of?  Or, is it all just instinct?  How would we know?  What would make behavior rational?  (this is a good exercise -- what makes someone morally culpable for a crime?  must they be rational to be punished?)

Chpt 7 Kant

What questions, comments, observations do you have about this chapter?  It is long and dense, so pick out some focused areas for discussion.

Current Events (Jan13)

 A realistic look at a dying spouse.

What he said before he died

January 28, 2013 08:00 PM | LEE ANN COX
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/what_he_said_before_he_died/

Facing Death

Questions, comments, reactions to the Frontline video.

Museums, places, events related to class

Films, books, music on death & dying

Expectations?

What do you think human nature is all about?  Why are you taking this course?  Why might thinking about death & dying and human nature be important to you, your family, your education?

Introductions

Who are you?  Why are you in this class?  What experiences (if any) have you had with death?