Let’s Play

Quarter 2 – Module 5:
DEATH AND THE MEANING
OF MY LIFE

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 OBJECTIVE
Let’s Play

Enumerate the objectives you want to

achieve and the projects you want to do in
your life;

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Introduction/review
Let’s Play
• We are now at the final stage of our
philosophical reflection on the human
person.
• Let us try to recall the essential things we
have learned so far.
• In the beginning of the course, we discussed
how philosophy directs us
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
towards a way of looking at life from a holistic
Let’s Play
perspective.
• The breadth and comprehension of this
perspective is paved by an attitude of
openness towards uncertainty.
• As such, we have seen how philosophy
encourages us to

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

embrace fundamental questions
Let’s Play which we ask
in our search for the meaning of our lives.
• We have learned, therefore, that
philosophizing is not just about “knowing”
things.
• Wisdom is not the same as knowledge.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• Wisdom includes the Play
Let’s humble acceptance of
things we don’t readily understand, and our
“yes” to the invitation to dwell on it.
• The most overriding uncertainty for all
human beings is the lack of knowledge about
our deaths and what happens after it.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• As this questionLet’s
touches
Playupon our life as a
whole, it also provides the scope within
which, we ask the most comprehensive
question:
• WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
• This is the focus of this chapter.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Let’s Play
“THOU HAST MADE US FOR THYSELF,
AND OUR HEART IS RESTLESS UNTIL
IT FINDS ITS REST IN THEE”

– St. Augustine Confession

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• Have you ever wondered
Let’s Playabout how nothing
seems to last forever?
• Objects get worn out until they can’t be
used anymore, food and drinks expire, and
trends become outdated after some time.
• Even more, what about the cycle of being
born, growing up, getting

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

sick, and dying? Let’s Play
• These point to one very important reality
about human condition: we are temporal
beings or “beings oriented towards death.”
• Have you ever thought about what it means
to die?

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• Surely, the ideaLet’s
makesPlay
you a bit
uncomfortable.
• You may feel that thinking about death at
this time in your life is inappropriate or
unnecessary since you are still young and
you have a whole life ahead of you.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• We do not really think
Let’s about the reality of
Play
our own death because it is difficult to
imagine when and how we will die.
• In fact, scientists and philosophers still
have many unanswered questions about
death.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• However, we cannot deny the fact that
Let’s Play
death exists in our world.
• We may have seen our beloved pets die;
experienced the death of a family
member, relative, or acquaintance; and
have heard of news about death in
television and other forms of media.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Let’s
• The very thought ofPlay
death and the mystery
surrounding it certainly causes a lot of grief
and anxiety to a person,
• but it is an essential element in the
human condition which definitely
deserves attention.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

• Only in reflecting
Let’sonPlay
the reality of death
can we begin to explore and understand the

• MEANING OF OUR OWN

EXISTENCE.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 LET’S PONDER
Let’s Play
• A ten-year-old once asked his mother a question:
“Mom, what if years after we die, no one will
remember us, what we said, or what we did,
what is the point of doing what we are doing
today?”
• If you were an honest mother, what would you
tell this little boy?
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
If you are a member of the
Let’s PlayCatholic Church,
 you would say that the meaning of life
lies in our resurrection from the dead.
 As Catholics, you believe that there is life
after death, and that the soul is immortal.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Whatever you sow in Play
Let’s your earthly life, you
will reap in heaven.

If you were Hindu,

 you would say that the meaning of your life
follows the law of Karma.
 When you die, your soul will be reincarnated
into a different form –
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
 depending on what
Let’syou did in your
Play
previous life.

If you were a pure materialist, such as

Democritus,
 you would say that there is no meaning to
what we are doing apart from what we are
doing now.
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
 When we die, the body
Let’s (and the soul which
Play
Democritus also believed to be made up of
atoms) will one day disintegrate in thin air.

Notice how different these answers are

from each other, yet no one of them is known to
be more than the others.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Some of them may Let’sbePlay
believed more than
the others, but as, we have learned in the
previous chapter, if an answer has not yet
fully passed the test of justification, for as
long as it is not proven to be true, it will still
remain to be an opinion.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 In this case, theLet’s
answers about what will
Play
happen to us after we die remain a matter of
belief.
 While there is nothing wrong in anchoring
your life on religious beliefs (unless you are
a committed atheist who would condemn
religious believers as foolish people),

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Let’s Play
 it is important to remain open with the truth
of uncertainty.
 No one is ever sure because no one, not even
the atheist who thinks that there is nothing
out there after death, has ever come back
after they died.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 The bottom lineLet’s
is thatPlay
all human persons are
equal in ignorance in the face of death.
 As someone once said, death is the great
equalizer.
 The task of philosophy is not to provide
another answer to the question of what
happens after

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 death, but to ask the Play
Let’s question:

What is the meaning of our lives in the face

of the uncertainty of what happens after death?
 In other words, the task of philosophy is to
address the question that the little boy asked
above.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 The philosophical reflection
Let’s Play on death is
ultimately, the same philosophical question
about the meaning of life.
 Is there meaning to all our striving, our
wanting to be the best that we can be, if we
are not sure of what happens to us after
death?

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Let’s
How does the reality of Play
death define our lives?

 Death is commonly understood as the end of

bodily functions which signals the end of a
person’s life.
 the separation of the body and the spirit.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 The body, being material,
Let’s Play is bound by the
laws of time and space and is subject to
growth, death, and decay.
 The spirit, being immaterial, will continue
to exist even after the body has passed.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 It is true that a person’s spiritual nature
Let’s Play
allows him or her to transcend his or her
temporality and physical limits.
 However, we also cannot deny the material
nature of the person, that he or she is still
bound by the same laws of nature and reality
that apply to all

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 objects in existence.
Let’s Play
 Everything that came to being in this
universe will eventually come to an end.
 We are born into human life, we grow and
age and we eventually die. This paradox
defines the uniqueness of human existence.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 It can be said that we Play
Let’s are also beings who
are moving towards our impending death.
 This makes a person’s life limited in time.
The focus on this limit has led to several
attitudes towards death.
 There are people who deny the idea of
human decline and death.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

 Some people rely on anti-aging
Let’s Play treatments
and products to make them look, feel, and
think that they are younger than they really
are.
 Others focus on experiencing intense
moments and feelings in order to feel alive
because no one really knows when life will
end.
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
 This has given rise toPlay
Let’s various expressions
such as #YOLO (You Only Live Once) and
“eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we
die”.
 Additionally, people also put great
importance to speed and efficiency – we are
concerned about doing more things in a
shorter span of time so
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
 we can do more in a Play
Let’s lifetime.
 We find means and ways to travel faster and
do things more efficiently by spending less
time and energy because we wish to
experience more of the world.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

o These attitudes Let’s
are notPlay
necessarily bad but
they may prevent us from reflecting on the
reality of death.
o We must embrace the fact that death is an
integral part of our life.
o Once we have come to terms with that, we
can focus not just on the quantifiable aspects
of life (e.g.,
Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person
 years lived, material things owned) but
Let’s Play
also on its quality.
o Ultimately, the acceptance of our
temporality can bring about a sense of
freedom in us.
o It can also give us a CLEARER
PURPOSE and FOCUS on our activities.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person

Since we cannot doLet’s
everything
Play in our lifetime,
we must be able to
o reflect on WHAT WE NEED TO DO and
o identify the GOALS WE NEED TO
ACHIEVE so we can say that WE
HAVE LIVED A MEANINGFUL
EXISTENCE.

Department of Education Intro. To the Philosophy of the human Person