Comments on: Why We Need Classical Philosophy http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2008/08/18/why-we-need-classical-philosophy/ Now This Is The Real World! Where Theology and Real Life Meet. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:17:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Hesiodos http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2008/08/18/why-we-need-classical-philosophy/comment-page-1/#comment-994608 Hesiodos Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:15:54 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/?p=1586#comment-994608 First Things had an excellent article on this topic back in 2003. Here is a paragraph to wet your interest: "What does the nature of death tell us about the nature of human life? The medical and legal definition of death draws a clear distinction between living cells and living organisms. Organisms are living beings composed of parts that have separate but mutually dependent functions. While organisms are made of living cells, living cells themselves do not necessarily constitute an organism. The critical difference between a collection of cells and a living organism is the ability of an organism to act in a coordinated manner for the continued health and maintenance of the body as a whole. It is precisely this ability that breaks down at the moment of death, however death might occur. Dead bodies may have plenty of live cells, but their cells no longer function together in a coordinated manner. We can take living organs and cells from dead people for transplant to patients without a breach of ethics precisely because corpses are no longer living human beings. Human life is defined by the ability to function as an integrated whole-not by the mere presence of living human cells." http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=485&var_recherche=death First Things had an excellent article on this topic back in 2003. Here is a paragraph to wet your interest: “What does the nature of death tell us about the nature of human life? The medical and legal definition of death draws a clear distinction between living cells and living organisms. Organisms are living beings composed of parts that have separate but mutually dependent functions. While organisms are made of living cells, living cells themselves do not necessarily constitute an organism. The critical difference between a collection of cells and a living organism is the ability of an organism to act in a coordinated manner for the continued health and maintenance of the body as a whole. It is precisely this ability that breaks down at the moment of death, however death might occur. Dead bodies may have plenty of live cells, but their cells no longer function together in a coordinated manner. We can take living organs and cells from dead people for transplant to patients without a breach of ethics precisely because corpses are no longer living human beings. Human life is defined by the ability to function as an integrated whole-not by the mere presence of living human cells.”
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=485&var_recherche=death

]]> By: Steve http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2008/08/18/why-we-need-classical-philosophy/comment-page-1/#comment-993823 Steve Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:48:16 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/?p=1586#comment-993823 Excellent and interesting post. Regarding brain death and heart death being fallacies (and also relevant to pro-life), here is an interesting article: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710394816&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Perhaps the field of medicine doesn't actually have much to tell us about death? When lives are saved many minutes or hours after so-called brain death, I wonder if those bodies were alive all along. Or perhaps they had died, and they were resurrected like Lazarus? I understand little of what death actually is, and what the transition to it entails, but I hope philosophy will be able to tell us more about it than medicine has. Excellent and interesting post.

Regarding brain death and heart death being fallacies (and also relevant to pro-life), here is an interesting article: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710394816&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Perhaps the field of medicine doesn’t actually have much to tell us about death? When lives are saved many minutes or hours after so-called brain death, I wonder if those bodies were alive all along. Or perhaps they had died, and they were resurrected like Lazarus?

I understand little of what death actually is, and what the transition to it entails, but I hope philosophy will be able to tell us more about it than medicine has.

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