DEATH, RELIGION AND CULTURE MA

PL7213

Meaning of Life & Death

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Table of Contents

Welcome to The Meaning of Life and Death

Lecturer and Contact Details
Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria
Assessment Activity
Assessment Policies and Return of Work
Formatting Requirements
Timetable of Group Learning Activities
General Introduction to the Module
Detailed Weekly Guided Reading and Tasks
1. Brave new worlds
2. Your soul or your money
3. know thyself
4. Hegel on Life and Death
5. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra
6. Return of Socrates

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Welcome to The Meaning of Life and Death
This module handbook is the central learning resource for this six-week module. In it you will
find core information about the module as whole, along with detailed weekly contents including
introductions to the material, guided reading questions and preparatory activities.

There are many links to online pages for readings. All the resources can be found in one place on
the weekly module pages on Canvas and most of them are available on the Resource page of the
Canvas module.

This module runs in the second half of semester 1 – From 7 November to 16th December 2022.

The validated Catalogue Summary from the original Module Descriptor for this module is as
follows:

Socrates chose death over censorship of his living the examined life. Plato argued that
life and death bled into each other in a dialectical relationship, not least in
transmigration of souls. More recently the philosopher Hegel has argued that the
experience we have of death while we are alive can be a template for a different kind
of society, one with different kinds of relations between human beings. So, how
closely should we keep death with us as we live our lives? What does the fact of death
teach us about life? How might we carry death with us in our lives as a political and
existential education? And, last but not least, might the idea of death carried in life
form the basis of what is called ‘vocation’? Is it our vocation to die? And if so, can we
die well?

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Lecturer and Contact Details

Nigel Tubbs

Email:
nigel.tubbs@winchester.ac.uk

Please e mail me if you need to arrange an online

meeting.

‘If I could promise you that by the end of our time together in the module we would know the
meaning of life and death, I would.

Failing that, let’s spend a few weeks together thinking about what death might mean to the
living, and, more strangely, what life might mean for the dying. We’ll read some very well know
material from within the western tradition, from ancient times, and from more recent times.’

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Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

Assessment
LO By the end of this module, you will be able to:
criteria

A. critically explore theories that explore the relation between life and 1&3
death

B. critically explore a range of complex and difficult theses on death and 2&4
how it can be lived

C. develop mastery in articulating ideas on death within the Western 1&2

philosophical tradition

D.

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 UoW Assessment Criteria: Portfolio LO A LO B LO C LO D

1. Advanced Research and Enquiry

Ability to identify relevant sources, critically evaluate, selectively
X X
use materials and compare data in a range of forms and from diverse
sources, identify, apply and critically evaluate information, data and
research methodologies.

2. Academic Skills
Proficiency in academic conventions, structures, referencing.
X X
Ability to respond to brief, according to subject requirements, and to
communicate and present conclusions clearly to specialist and non-
specialist audiences.

3. Subject Knowledge and Understanding

Critical and systematic engagement with concepts, principles, key
tenets of subject, theory, context, limitations and acute awareness of X X
problems. In-depth and advanced systematic knowledge and critical
understanding of the subject and professional context, informed by
perceptive insight into current practice, research and scholarship.

4. Values, Qualities and Attributes

Evidence of engagement with ethical, legal, moral, subject-related
X X
and professional values, demonstrate self-direction and originality in
tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning
and implementing tasks.

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Assessment Activity
This six-week 10-credit module is assessed by the submission of a single, summative assessment
on Canvas.

Type of assessment: Essay or dialogue

Deadline for submission: 16/01/23
Weight: 100% of 10 CATS assessing all Learning Outcomes
Content details: 2,000 words
Anonymous marking: No
Filetype: A single .doc or .docx Word file
Return of work: X
Second attempt deadline: X

Choose an essay from the following titles;

 Was Socrates right in how he thought about death?

 How close should we keep death in our lives?
 Death: should we avoid it or embrace it?
 Should death be part of how we know ourselves?
 Can death offer a new vision of society?
 Describe and critically discuss Hegel’s life and death struggle
 What does it mean for dying if there is no afterlife?
 Explain and reflect on thoughts about death from one or more of the philosophers we
have looked at on the module.

Or

 Write a dialogue involving Socrates discussing life and death in relation to a topical
issue.

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The formative work towards this assessment takes place in forum activities where you will be
able to receive guidance from the lecturer and your peers. You are welcome to contact me to
discuss your assignment by email.

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Assessment Policies and Return of Work
UoW Anonymous Marking Policy

This module is exempt from the UoW Anonymous Marking Policy.

Late Submission

Students can submit an assignment up to five working days after the due date. In this situation,
the grade will be capped at 50%. Failure to submit by the late deadline will result in a mark of
0%. Please see the Programme Handbook for further details of the late submission policy.

Second Attempts

If you fail to meet the pass grade of 50%, you will be given a second opportunity to submit.
More information on this policy can be found in your Programme Handbook.

Extenuating Circumstances

If there is a reason why you are unable to submit by the standard due date, you might be entitled
to apply for an extension through our extenuating circumstances policy. More information on
this policy can be found in your Programme Handbook.

Return of Work

All summative assessments will be marked and returned to students within 15 working days of
the published submission date. Moderation will be completed within five working days of this
deadline, if it has not already taken place.

How do I see my grade and feedback once I submit my work?

You will receive a grade and written feedback through Speedgrader on Canvas. Students are also
encouraged to discuss feedback with the assessor if they need to seek clarification.

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Formatting Requirements
Your submission must meet the following requirements:

You will submit a single .doc or .docx file on the Canvas Assignment’s page for this module.

In this document, references must be formatted in CHICAGO FOOTNOTE format and a

separate BIBLIOGRAPHY at the end of the document must be included. This referencing
format is also known as Chicago’s NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY format. Further
instructions for this format can be found in the Programme Handbook, on the university
SkillsNet and on the Chicago Manual of Style homepage.

To insert a footnote in Word, hold CTRL and tap the sequence of keys: i n n ENTER.

It is important where a page number or other information (paragraph number, section title, etc.)
that could assist the reader in checking your research can be provided it is included.

In accordance with Section B6 of the Assessment Regulations. Work should be:

a) Calibri font, size 11, black type (no colours) – triple click in the left margin to select all.
On the ‘Home’ menu, under ‘Font’ set the font to Calibiri, 11 and black.
b) 1.5 line spacing – triple click in the left margin to select all. On the ‘Home’ menu, under
‘Paragraph’ set the ‘Line and Paragraph Spacing’ to 1.5.
c) 2.5 cm margins – on the ‘Layout’ menu, select ‘Margins’ and ‘Normal’.
d) Page numbered throughout – on the ‘Insert’ menu, select Page Number select a style
such as ‘Bottom of Page’: ‘Plane Number 2’

You might produce your work in a different format but please set these settings before
submission as they cannot be changed by the marker in the online marking system. Please note
that markers may be unable to mark your work if these formatting guidelines are not complied
with and the capacity to comply with this guidance is part of the assessment.

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Timetable of Group Learning Activities
The focus of this module is asynchronous, guided, independent learning. You can complete the
reading and associated tasks in your own time. However, to aid understanding, this is supported
by a number of group discussion activities with your peers on the course that are guided by the
lecturer – some live and some on online forums. Here is a timetable of these group discussion
activities.

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 Live discussion class
Week 8: 8th November
Tuesday, 18:00-19:00
Brave new worlds

Week 9:
Asynchronous Forum Activity.
Your money or your soul

Live discussion class

Week 10: 22nd November Tuesday, 18:00-19:00
Know Thyself

Week 11:
Asynchronous Forum Activity.
Life and Death in Hegel

Live discussion class

Week 12: 6th December Tuesday, 18:00-19:00
Nietzsche’s Zarathustra

Week 13: Asynchronous Forum Activity

Socrates returns

General Introduction to the Module

Philosophers talking about life and death might sound intimidating, at first, and perhaps a bit
removed from how most of us go through our lives. But it doesn’t take too much to scratch
beneath our surfaces and find that all of us implicitly carry some kind of answer with us about
the meaning of life and death.

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 Week

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In our module we’ll let Socrates and others help us, from Antiquity; Hegel and Nietzsche from
the 19th century; and Socrates again in thinking about some of the issues that are prevalent in
today’s world. One of your assessments can be to write a dialogue, using Socrates, in the same
way that Plato did almost 2500 years ago.

Where possible we will read from the original texts. In the spirit of our chosen thinkers, you need
to have the experience of reading them for yourselves. Surrogates are not the path to learning to
think for ourselves.

By the end of the module if we have been successful, then our philosophers will have left their
mark, somewhere, in ways that might stay with you in your professional work, and in your
personal lives.
Detailed Weekly Guided Reading and Tasks

1. Brave New Worlds

This week is supported by a live online discussion class.

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 O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.

— William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931, and it was first published in 1932. If you
haven’t read the whole book before, I hope you might think about doing so now. We will read
and talk about three of its chapters (see below). You will see that he challenges us to think about
attitudes to death in a future technologically driven society with a completely different set of
social values…

In addition I have included for us to read a recent manifesto of what some call ‘transhumanism’.
It offers, from the future, a different vision of life’s possible meaning. We will think about
whether this is also another brave new world.

You can read Huxley’s whole novel here.

Brave New World

R E A D I N G 1 . B R AV E N E W W O R L D – A L D O U S H U X L E Y C H A P T E R S 2 , 1 4
AND 17.

"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be
unhappy. Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right
to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be
lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-

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 morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable
pains of every kind." There was a long silence. "I claim them all," said the
Savage at last. Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he
said.

Guided Reading and Activities:

Question 1. Nature v. technology… what do you think?

Task 1. Think about examples where nature and technology clash today, and which could be
used in our live session to discuss.

READING 2: LETTER FROM UTOPIA – NICK BOSTROM

Suppose we can improve the human condition through the use of biotechnology,
but that this may require changing the condition of being human. Should we?
Transhumanism says yes.

This is a letter from the future, written to encourage human beings to become better than they
are, aided by technology. It is short and very readable!

‘Death is not one but a multitude of assassins. Do you not see them? They are coming at you
from every angle. Take aim at the causes of early death – infection, violence, malnutrition, heart
failure, cancer. Train your biggest gun on aging, and fire. You must seize control of the
biochemical processes in your body in order to vanquish, by and by, illness and senescence. In
time, you will discover ways to move your mind to more durable media. Then continue to
improve the system, so that the risks of death and disease keep receding. Any death prior to the
heat death of the universe is premature if your life is good.’

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Guided Reading and Activities:

Task 1: If you were to write a letter from the future to yourself about striving to become more
than you are, what might you say?

Question 1: If you received the letter today, would you believe your future self?

O P T I O N A L F U RT H E R R E A D I N G 2 :

N I C K B O S T R O M ‘ T R A N S H U M A N I S T VA L U E S ’

“The enhancement

options being
‘Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked
discussed include

radical extension of
beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current

human health-span, humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that
eradication of disease, by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we
elimination of shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater
unnecessary capacities than present human beings have.’
suffering, and

augmentation of

human intellectual,

physical, and

emotional capacities.”

Guided Reading and Activities:

Task 1: if human nature is a work in progress what kinds of improvements might you want to
make?

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Question 1: Would you consider yourself a transhumanist?

Key questions to be discussed at the live online discussion class:

A – What is Huxley asking us to think about in these readings?

B – Do we need suffering in life, or should we use technology to try to avoid it or even overcome
it altogether?

C – How is Huxley suggesting we should treat death?

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 Week

2. Your money or your soul; Socrates

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This week is supported by asynchronous online forum activity.

Plato’s famous text, The Apology presents a version of events recorded by Plato at the trial of his
teacher, Socrates. Socrates: Born Athens – 470BC; died Athens – 399BC. Perhaps his most
famous statement from The Apology is ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’

Most of what we know about Socrates comes from records of conversations that he had with
people in the city state (polis) of Athens. These dialogues were recorded by one of his pupils,
Plato, and are known often as Platonic or Socratic dialogues. This dialogical form of education,
begun with Socrates, has had a remarkable and lasting influence on much educational practice in
the west over the last two thousand years—although it is not always very obvious how. It is a
conversational method of education, one of question and answer, and stands in contrast to
education that is delivered to passive students by an authoritarian teacher.

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The Apology is Socrates’s defence against charges brought against him by the city state of
Athens. I hope you will have the chance to read all of it. To help you through it, I have suggested
some questions that you might look out for answers to. They should help you to pick out some of
the most important points.

R E A D I N G 1 : S O C R AT E S S P E E C H I N P L AT O ’ S A P O L O G Y ( T R A N S L AT I O N
BY GRUBE)

… I’m a midwife’s son and practise the art myself. When I ask a question, set
about answering it to the best of your ability. And if, on examination, I find that
some thought of yours is illusory and untrue, and if I then draw it out of you and
discard it, don’t rant and rave at me… In the past, my friend, when I’ve
removed some piece of nonsense of theirs, people have often worked themselves
up into such a state that they’ve been ready literally to bite me! They don’t
believe that I’m acting of goodwill; it doesn’t even cross their minds that no god
bears ill will towards men, and that I am not motivated by ill-will either. I do
what I do because it is my moral duty not to connive at falsehood and cover up
truth’ Plato, Theaetetus, 151 c-d.

If you use the following questions to help with your reading, it should open up the main points
that Socrates makes in his great speech. Note in particular what he says about death, knowing
that he is risking being sentenced to death by the jury in his own trial.

Guided Reading and Activities:

What was his mission? (Read about what happened at the Delphic Oracle and what prompted
Socrates to begin to lead his life dedicated to education.)

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Why was he being tried? And why did he refuse to stop? (Try to find the charges that were being
brought against him, why the State thought him so dangerous, and why he refused to change his
activities?

Why did he not fear the death penalty? (What is his argument about death?)

R E A D I N G 2 . T H E FA M O U S D E AT H S C E N E F R O M P L AT O ’ S P H A E D O

Crito nodded to the slave who was standing near him; the slave went out and
after a time came back with the man who was to administer the poison, carrying
it made ready in a cup..

See what you make of this famous death scene, where Socrates calmly takes the poison that will
carry out the death sentence that the jury have imposed.

Guided Reading and Activities:

Thinking Point 1. Is this the death of a saint or an arrogant fool?

Thinking point 2. What do you take from Socrates life and death, if anything?

O P T I O N A L R E A D I N G 1 . H E G E L O N S O C R AT E S

We should expect nothing else of Socrates than that he should go to meet his
death in the most calm and manly fashion. Plato’s account of the wonderful
scene his last hours presented, although containing nothing very special, forms

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 an elevating picture, and will be to us a permanent representation of a noble
deed.

These are the thoughts on Socrates of the 19th century philosopher GWF Hegel. It is a long read,
but does give you some very interesting ideas on the significance of Socrates for Western history
and thought.

The reference is Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Part One: Greek Philosophy.
First Period, Second Division. B. Socrates.

Guided Reading and Activities:

Thinking Point 1. What is Hegel suggesting about Socrates’s historical significance?

Thinking Point 2. Did death ‘become’ Socrates?

O P T I O N A L F U RT H E R R E A D I N G 2 .

KIERKEGAARD
T H E C O N C E P T O F I R O N Y, W I T H C O N T I N U A L R E F E R E N C E T O S O C R AT E S
P P. 3 2 - 3 6 , 1 7 5 - 1 7 8 , 2 4 2

Therefore he placed individuals under his dialectical vacuum pump, pumped

away the atmospheric air they were accustomed to breathing, and left them
standing there. For them, everything was now lost, except to the extent that they
were able to breathe ethereal air. Socrates, however, had nothing more to do
with them but hastened on to new ventures.

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The Danish philosopher was very much influenced by Socrates. This selection of readings gives
some idea on the kinds of things Kierkegaard accused him of. If you are interested in this then do
try reading more of Kierkegaard’s book for yourself.

The reading this week is supported by asynchronous discussion forum activities.

Thinking points: Socrates: Friend of education or foe? Friend of the state or foe? Hypocrite or
man of deep integrity? Foolish or wise in regards to death? Do you like him? Has he changed
your views on anything?

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 Week

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3. Know thyself
This week is supported by live online discussion class

γνῶθι σεαυτόν is Greek for ‘know thyself’.

This is one of the most famous sayings to have survived from antiquity. This week I will give
you some examples of just how influential the idea has been. The first reading is from one of my
own books. The second reading is a selection of quotations from across two and half thousand
years that I have put together. There are also two suggestions for further optional reading.

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 R E A D I N G 1 . K N O W T H Y S E L F I N T U B B S ’ G O D , E D U C AT I O N A N D
M O D E R N M E TA P H Y S I C S , 11 - 1 6

This describes Eliza Wilkins work on eight themes in the idea of Know thyself the ancient world.
These are: know one’s measure, know one’s limits, know one’s place, know the limits of one’s
wisdom, know one’s own faults, know one’s mortality, know one’s soul, and finally know how
difficult all this is. You might wish to concentrate on the theme of knowing one’s mortality and
how ‘educative’ an idea this is for living our lives.

It also returns us to Socrates, and a discussion from Charmides that takes us back to some of the
ideas raised last week.

Note the picture above shows the relation of know thyself to death. It is a mosaic from
excavations in the convent of San Gregorio in Rome, probably dating back to the first century.

How important is to know ourselves, or to try to know ourselves as we go through life?

What do you think of the 8 categories that Wilkins comes up with for know thyself? Do any of
them strike you as more important than others?

READING 2. NOTES ON KNOW THYSELF

I have put these quotations together in roughly chronological order. This is to at least suggest
that there might be a story developing over time with regard to know thyself. Read them as if
they are one piece of prose.

Guided Reading and Activities

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Thinking Point 1. Do any of the quotations make you think differently about knowing ourselves?

Task 1. Could you write two or three short paragraphs that would sum up your own views on the
idea of and the importance of knowing oneself?

OPTIONAL READING 1.ELIZA WILKINS, KNOW THYSELF IN GREEK

A N D L AT I N L I T E R AT U R E

A wonderful little book. It takes a knowledge of Greek for granted, but you can get the gist of
what she is saying without having to translate every Greek phrase.

She has another book, Delphic Maxims in Literature which looks at some of the other maxims
found in the Temple at Delphi alongside know thyself. Chapter 1 is particularly interesting?

OPTIONAL READING 2.
P L U TA R C H , ‘ T H E E AT D E L P H I ’

This short book is by Plutarch. He was born c. AD 46 and was a Greek Platonic philosopher, but
also a priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He wrote the E at Delphi to discuss the fact that
this fifth letter of the Greek alphabet appeared alongside the other well-known inscriptions at the
temple, including of course know thyself. He lists seven possible meanings. Along the way he
offers many interesting thoughts on a variety of things, not least how we face up things which we
can’t understand. For our purposes you might just read chapters 17-20. They take us to some
familiar themes but also introduce new ones, not least the idea that in life we die many times!

Guided Reading and Activities

Thinking Point 1. What is ‘change’ in nature, and in our lives? Are we ever the same person
from one day to the next, or from one situation to another?

Task 1. What if anything is the same about you now as say, 20 or 30 years ago (or longer)?

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 Week

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4. Life and Death in Hegel

This week is supported by asynchronous online forum activity..

This is a very difficult text to read, but I think it’s worth our time and effort to try to understand
as much of it as we can. To help, I have put together a set of notes that try to break it down into
its key points (with some strange stick person illustrations). So for this week I think you should
try two things. Read the Hegel text, have the experience of trying to understand him. And then
go to my notes to see if they help to make sense of it. If they do, then you can go back to the
Hegel and perhaps read the two together. It might be a different experience second time round.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything!

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 R E A D I N G 1 . L I F E A N D D E AT H , A N D M A S T E R A N D S L AV E , I N H E G E L’ S
P H E N O M E N O L O G Y O F S P I R I T, PA R A S 1 7 8 - 1 9 6

R E A D I N G 2 . C L A S S N O T E S H E G E L L I F E A N D D E AT H

Guided questions:

This is a tough read. If (when) you get stuck, try thinking about these questions.

What does Hegel mean by mutual recognition?

Is a life and death struggle inevitable?

What is learned from realising that we can die?

Why is the ‘master’ so vulnerable?

OPTIONAL READINGS

Here is a range of readings and viewings that you could look at if the Hegel piece interests you.

Harris, HS. (1997) Hegel’s Ladder volume 1: The Pilgrimage of Reason, Indianapolis, Hackett
Publishing Company, chapter 8.

Hyppolite, J. (1974) Genesis and Structure of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, Evanston,

Northwestern University Press, pp. 162-71.

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Kojeve, A. (1969) Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, ‘In Place of an Introduction’ Ithaca,
Cornell University Press, pp. 3-30.

Harris, H.S. (1995) Hegel: Phenomenology and System, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing
Company, pp. 35-40.

du Bois, W. (2003) The Education of Black People, New York, Monthly Review Press, 106-8,
128.

Ansbro, JJ. (1982) Martin Luther King, The Making of a Mind, New York, Orbis Books, pp.
119-129, 214-15, 298.

José Ortega y Gasset, (1993) The Revolt of the Masses, Norton Publishing Co. p. 63.

Douglass, F. (1845) Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, chapter X.

Tubbs, N. (2021) Socrates On Trial, London, Bloomsbury, Book 8.

Viewing:

Maya Angelou ’Still I rise’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0

Maya Angelou ‘The Mask’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=UT9y9HFHpU0&feature=youtu.be

Also worth a read on this theme is Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, ‘The Grand
Inquisitor’, pp. 283-304. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter36.html

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5. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra
This week is supported by live online discussion class

This week we are introduced to the teacher called Zarathustra, from Fredrich Nietzsche’s most
famous book, Thus Spake Zarathustra.

Nietzsche first thought about the idea of his Zarathustra in 1880 while working on a different
book. It was written between 1883-5. The book is in 4 parts after a Prologue. To begin with the
first three parts were published individually. The fourth part was written in 1885 and kept
private. Books 5 and 6 were considered and might have dealt with Zarathustra’s death but they
were never written.

Why is the book so intriguing? Well, how many other books do we have in the philosophical
tradition, dealing with profound ideas, that begin with a lonely man living on a mountain top,

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deciding to come down and teach the people about what he’s learned in his isolation? It’s not
written in prose, it’s written largely as a record of what he says in his speeches. This already
makes it different, and much more dramatic than most philosophy books.

There is also a plot to the story. It’s a tale of hope and failure, repeated over and over again. He
speaks, the people reject him, he goes back to isolation, then comes back and has another go.
What is he teaching? What is his message to all of us? You are perhaps already aware that one of
the most famous ideas in the book is that of the Übermensch, or as it gets translated, the
Overman, or sometimes the Superman. For some people it refers to something like the Nazi idea
of the Aaryan super race. For others it suggests the next step in human evolution, something
beyond the human being we are today, to something superhuman that we might be tomorrow
(think again about our first week and the brave new worlds). There remains much controversy
about what Nietzsche meant us to understand by this Übermensch.

Our reading today is the Prologue to the book. It has its own story. Zarathustra goes to a market
place in a town where people are waiting for a tightrope walker to perform. He has already
announced to someone in the forest that ‘God is dead’. Taking advantage of this ready-made
crowd he starts teaching them: ‘I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be
overcome’ he says. Don’t listen any more to people who teach you of heaven and hell. Don’t
listen to people who tell you that the body and its desires are evil. Don’t trust in reason or virtue
or justice. Trust in the frenzy of the overman.

He is totally misunderstood. They think he’s talking about the tightrope walker. They laugh at
him. And in a theme that will be repeated throughout the book he laments, ‘I am not the mouth
for these ears.’ Their so-called education stops them being able to listen to him or to understand
him. And he predicts that the last man is coming, the kind of man who will lose all sense of life
and vitality.

Meanwhile the tightrope walker begins his act. As he reaches the middle of the wire a jester-type
figure runs out onto the wire behind him and follows him. Not surprisingly perhaps, the tightrope
walker is so shocked that he loses his balance and falls to the ground, right next to Zarathustra.
Before dying he says to Zarathustra that he fears going to hell. Don’t worry, says Zarathustra,
there is no such place. Take heart instead that you lived a life of danger and therefore of vitality.

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He dies, and Zarathustra carries the body into the forest intending to bury him himself. He wakes
and is suddenly clear about what he must do. He must avoid the stupid people who don’t want to
learn and find those who still have the ability within them to give birth to stars. Thus begins his
quest.

I hope you will read this Prologue for yourselves. Afterwards you might consider the following
kinds of questions.

Why does this teacher need ‘hands outstretched’?

What difference does it make to death if God is dead?

What might he mean by ‘the last man’?

Why does Zarathustra value the tightrope walker?

If you enjoy this piece, then perhaps try the next section in the book called ‘On The Three
Metamorphoses.’ It gives some idea of what kinds of changes Nietzsche thought human beings
needed to make in order to cope with the death of God and to begin to live healthy lives out of
the shadow of false religions. The picture above is a representation of the three pages that make
up this intriguing section of the book.

R E A D I N G 1 . T H E P R O L O G U E , F R O M N I E T Z S C H E ’ S T H U S S PA K E
Z A R AT H U S T R A , ( WA LT E R K A U F M A N N , ( 1 9 8 2 ) T H E P O R TA B L E
N I E T Z S C H E , N E W Y O R K , T H E V K I N G P R E S S ) , PA G E S 1 2 1 - 1 3 7 .

R E A D I N G 2 . O N T H E T H R E E M E TA M O R P H O S E S , F R O M N I E T Z S C H E ’ S
T H U S S PA K E Z A R AT H U S T R A , ( WA LT E R K A U F M A N N , ( 1 9 8 2 ) T H E
P O RTA B L E N I E T Z S C H E , N E W Y O R K , T H E V K I N G P R E S S ) , PA G E S 1 3 7 - 9

Nietzsche’s death of God also gives us the opportunity to think again about death. Here are a few
articles that you might be interested to read …

The God of Death and the God of Life: A Study of Nietzsche, Jeffrey Sobosan.

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Killing God, Liberating the "Subject": Nietzsche and Post-God Freedom, Michael Lackey.

Blanchot and Nietzsche on the Death of God. Susan Foale

N also ventures into euthanasia and aided death. In the book Twilight of the Idols, (Kaufmann
edition, 1982, in The Portable Nietzsche) he says that doctors should have a new form of
responsibility – to serve only that which promotes life and not to continue lives that have lost
their will to live. ‘Death freely chosen, death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully
accomplished amid children and witnesses: then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is
taking leave is still there’ (1982, 536-7). And to people who are pessimists N says they should
put themselves, and us, out of their misery.

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 Week

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6. Socrates Returns
This week is supported by online asynchronous forum activity.

In my most recent book I tried to imagine what it might be like if Socrates returned (from his
death?) to talk to us again in our contemporary moment. I have written a synopsis of the book on
this website, and as you will see, this is part of a project called Socrates on Trial. Please do
explore the website for yourselves. The synopsis of the book is here.

The theme of life and death is perhaps the most important in the book. I hope if you read Book 8
you will immediately see its relation to the Hegel that we looked at in week 4 of our module. But
for our final reading together we will read the new Apology by Socrates at the end of the book.
Don’t cheat and look at the new verdict before you have read this! This should bring together
Socrates, Hegel, and many of the other themes we have thought about so far. You can access the
e book via the university library.

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 T U B B S , N . ( 2 0 2 1 ) S O C R AT E S O N T R I A L , L O N D O N , B L O O M S B U R Y,
PA G E S 2 8 9 - 2 9 9 ( B O O K 1 8 ) .

Guided questions:

So many questions could be asked here. What do you think of the charges brought against
Socrates? What do you think of his defence? Is he right to think the trial represents an attempt to
kill off critical education altogether? Is he right to characterise modern life as torn between
dogmatism and scepticism? Is he at all successful in championing education again? And, perhaps
of most importance in the book, what is he saying is the relation between education on the one
hand and life and death on the other?

Having written a Socratic dialogue myself I want to encourage anyone who would like to, to try
this for their assessment. Have Socrates as your central character, and use him to create a
discussion about life and death in relation to anything we have thought about in the module, or
anything you have read, or indeed any contemporary issues that you are interested in. It might
sound daunting at first, but recent experience has shown me that students enjoy it much more
than they think they will. And there are new shorter dialogues on the website to look at as well.

Socrates, who should have a higher education?

Socrates, should politicians tell the truth?

Politeia

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