Sex and Death
Subtitle: A Reappraisal of Human Mortality
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: October 1, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780745622781
Subjects: Metaphysics & ontology; Philosophy of religion; Social Science; Movements - Humanism; Philosophy; Sociology; Social Science / Death & Dying; Mortality; Death & Dying; Religious; Spirituality - General; Death
First sentence: For, indeed, when, where and how can what are called the primary objects of nature be possessed in this life with such certainty that they are not subject to the vicissitudes of chance?
Description: "For centuries people have debated the nature of the human self. Running beneath these various arguments lie three certainties - we are born, reproduce sexually, and die. The models of spirituality which dominate the Western tradition have claimed that it is possible to transcend these aspects of human physicality by ascribing to human beings alternative traits, such as consciousness, mind and reason. By locating the essence of human life outside its basic physical features, mortality itself has come to be viewed as a problem, for it appears to render human life both meaningless and absurd. Complex connections have then been made between the key features of life: sex is linked with death, and birth becomes the event that introduces the child to the world of decay - and ultimately to death itself." "This book exposes the way in which the preoccupation with transcendence in both religious and secular thinking has distorted our sense of what it is to be human. At the same time, Sex and Death offers an alternative approach to the debate, based on an acceptance of mortality that emphasizes the depth and profundity possible in human life. It is an argument which will be essential reading for students of philosophy or religion, as well as the general reader interested in these debates."--BOOK JACKET.