LS 660 - Practicing Death

(3.00 cr.)

Facing his own approaching execution, Socrates proclaims (as recounted in the Phaedo) that "it seems to me natural that a man who has really devoted his life to philosophy should be cheerful in the face of death." For Socrates, the philosophical manner of existing, what he called "care of the soul," is properly practicing death. Much more than a morbid consideration driven by darkness and fear, the thoughtful examination of death is precisely an engagement with life. This course examines the notion of practicing death, noting its foundations in diverse philosophical systems (such as ancient Greek philosophy, Eastern thought, and existentialism) and locating its more immediate presence in specific examples from literature and film. Underlying the examination is the question of the creation of individual value and the determination of individual meaning in response to the inevitability that is one's death.