본문 바로가기
  • Home

A Way Toward Life-Culture of Aging Society-through Philosophical Reflection on Death

  • The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics
  • Abbr : 기사윤
  • 2013, (27), pp.7-42
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Christian Social Ethics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology

Jongkyunn Park 1

1부산장신대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This research is aimed to philosophically reflect how to dwell on the life in the aging society that the number of the population of senior citizens who must be anxious about their death is increasing. Traditionally considered in the western thought, the life is considered as delaying the imminent death by means of different kinds of steps. The death is an already-arriving and avoidable fate. So the image of death is associated with darkness and fear, and the image of life is regarded as something between death and death. In this study, we can not deal with specifically the western classical thoughts to refuse the reality of death because they have their own enormous history. Therefore, this researcher intends to limit the extent of our study and to focus on modern philosophers who are reasoning life through affirming death. To begin with, our study examine the issue of life that was dealt with in biology and medical science of 19th century, depending on M. Foucault’s thesis. An observation of philosophical clarification of his thought called “thinking over life through death” reveals us that it appears repeatedly in recent philosophy of the west just like unconscious episteme. And it develops clearly as follows: in Foucault death is regulating the essence of life, in M. Heidegger death is the event of activity, the best brightness and possibilities in the intrinsic existence of human-being which can be acquired through the way of running in advanced toward death. On the other hand, in Levinas death is the event of passivity and finiteness that the subject is not able to be his own master. And in M. Blanchot pushing Levinas’ thesis furtherly death means an impossibility of subject, “outside(dehors) experience” which is neither my own nor yours between you and I. This researcher, however, tries to find a clue of how to reason the life not through death but through life with help of Borges. Our study suggests that his idea on life(joyful endless deaths really means immortality) may be a way of philosophical and cultural well-being life in this aging society.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.