Mortality as a Philosophical-Anthropological Issue: Thanatology, Normativity, and "Human Nature"
This paper examines mortality—the fact that we humans are all going to die—as an issue in philosophical anthropology, by applying a fourfold typology of some key forms of philosophical anthropology to the topic of death and mortality. First, this typology, originally suggested by Heikki Kannisto, is outlined; the mortality issue is, then, viewed from the perspective it opens. Finally, the challenges to our understanding of death and mortality that this perspective may help us meet are discussed. The treatment of mortality from the perspective of philosophical anthropology may make it more understandable in a manner that will highlight the importance of the concept of normativity in the philosophical examination of any such humanly relevant issue.
References
Bauman, Z. Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
de Caro, M., Macarthur, D. (Eds.). Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 2004.Search in Google Scholar
Cassirer, E. An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972.Search in Google Scholar
Elias, N. The Loneliness of the Dying. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.Search in Google Scholar
Feldman, F. Confrontations with the Reaper. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
Feldman, F. Death. In E. Craig (Ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, electronic version. London & New York: Routledge, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Fischer, J.M. (Ed.). The Metaphysics of Death. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993.Search in Google Scholar
Flew, A. The Logic of Mortality. Oxford & New York: Blackwell, 1987.Search in Google Scholar
Harris, J. Life and Death. In E. Craig (Ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, electronic version. London & New York: Routledge, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Hartle, A. Death and the Disinterested Spectator: An Inquiry into the Nature of Philosophy. Albany: SUNY, 1986.Search in Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1960.Search in Google Scholar
Kainz, H.P. The Philosophy of Man: A New Introduction to Some Perennial Issues. Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1981.Search in Google Scholar
Kannisto, H. Filosofisen antropologian mahdollisuudesta" [On the Possibility of Philosophical Anthropology]. Ajatus 41, 217-235, 1984.Search in Google Scholar
Keil, G., Schnädelbach, H. (Eds.). Naturalismus: Philosophische Beiträge. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000.Search in Google Scholar
Lear, J. Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Leman-Stefanovic, I. The Event of Death: A Phenomenological Inquiry. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987.Search in Google Scholar
Levinas, E. The Levinas Reader. In S. Hand (Ed.). Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.Search in Google Scholar
Lucretius. The Nature of the Universe. Ttranslated by R.E. Latham, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957.Search in Google Scholar
Malpas, J., Solomon, R.C. (Eds.). Death and Philosophy. London & New York: Routledge, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
McDowell, J. Mind and World, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
Nagel, T. Mortal Questions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.Search in Google Scholar
Nagel, T. The View from Nowhere. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Search in Google Scholar
Pappé, H.O. Philosophical Anthropology. In P. Edwards (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Macmillan & The Free Press, vol. 6, 159-166, 1967.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. Pragmatism and Philosophical Anthropology: Understanding Our Human Life in a Human World. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. Death—Mine or the Other's On the Possibility of Philosophical Thanatology". Mortality 6, 265-286, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. William James on Death, Mortality, and Immortality. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 38, 605-628, 2002.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. On the Concept of Philosophical Anthropology. Journal of Philosophical Research 28, 259-285, 2003.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. Solipsism: History, Critique, and Relevance. Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2004.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. Pragmatic Moral Realism: A Transcendental Defense. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2005.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. The Transcendental Method in Metaphysics. Paper presented at the conference, The History of the Transcendental Turn, (London, UK, September, 2006); http://www.essex.ac.uk/philosophy/tpn/2006conference.shtml (a revised version available at www.helsinki.fi/filosofia/tutkijaseminaari/htm).Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S., Koskinen, H.J. Philosophical and Empirical Knowledge in the Program of Naturalism. In M. Kiikeri, P. Ylikoski (Eds.). Explanatory Connections: Essays Dedicated to Matti Sintonen's 50th Birthday, 2001, online: www.valt.fi/kfil/mattiSearch in Google Scholar
Rickman, H.P. Philosophical Anthropology and the Problem of Meaning. Philosophical Quarterly 10, 12-20, 1960.Search in Google Scholar
Rickman, H.P. Is Philosophic Anthropology Possible? Metaphilosophy 16, 29-46, 1985.Search in Google Scholar
Rosenberg, J.F. Thinking Clearly about Death, 2nd ed. Indianapolis & Cambridge: Hackett (1st ed. 1983), 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Schacht, R. Philosophical Anthropology: What, Why and How. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50 (supplement vol.), 155-176, 1990.Search in Google Scholar
Schacht, R. Philosophical Anthropology. In R. Audi (Ed.). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 580-581, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
Scheler, M. Vom Umsturz der Werte. Leipzig: Neue Idee, 1919.Search in Google Scholar
Scheler, M. Philosophische Weltanschauung. München: Lehnen, 1954.Search in Google Scholar
Schnädelbach, H. Philosophie in der modernen Kultur. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000.Search in Google Scholar
Stevenson, L., Haberman, D.L. Ten Theories of Human Nature, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, C. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, C. Philosophical Arguments. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
de Unamuno, M. The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations. Translated by A. Kerrigan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.Search in Google Scholar
Weiland, R. (Ed.). Philosophische Anthropologie der Moderne. Weinheim: Beltz Athenäum, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
White, M. A Philosophy of Culture: The Scope of Holistic Pragmatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.Search in Google Scholar
Winch, P. Essays on Ethics and Action. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.Search in Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. Tractatus logico-philosophicus: Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1960.Search in Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. Philosophical Investigations, G.E.M. Anscombe & G.H. von Wright (Eds.). Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell, 1958.Search in Google Scholar
Zaner, R.M. An Approach to Philosophical Anthropology. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 27, 55-68, 1966.Search in Google Scholar
© 2007 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
This content is open access.