Death in Literature and Philosophy

 Plato’s perception – philo = search for knowledge.

 Christian perspective on death
 Nietsche – anti-perception (death is misrepresented by Christian priests)
 Literary texts to illustrate this philosophy
-Study of an existential approach of death + French existentialism (Albert Camus),
metaphysical structure (research of goals, moral existence, science…). Death as “All of
nothing”.
-Julia Kristeva’s idea of beheading (philosopher and feminist)
-Richard Wright’s (Native Son novel)
-Maurice Blanchot (The Writing of the Disaster – question of the disaster that destroys 
Holocaust thematic, describing his own experience).
Integrate teams + buy books in the Syllabus

A. CLASSICAL VIEWS OF DEATH

Week 1: From Plato’s Phaedo, Sections 57a-69e
Weekly reading:
Plato. Phaedo. In Complete Works. Eds. Cooper, John M. and D. S. Hutchinson.
Hackett: Indianapolis, IN, 1997. 49-100. Print.
From Phaedo by Plato / Background information on Phaedo
 Also known by the title On the Soul
 Middle-period dialogue (not “socratic” but explores Plato’s views on issues as immortality of
the soul, knowledge and explanation. Philosophical positions.)
 Relate Socrates’ last hours in prison and his injust death (accused of corrupting values,
destroying the Greek culture…)
 Fourth and final episode in a series of dialogues recounting Socrates’ trial and death. Apology:
Socrates’ defense before the Athenian jury / Crito: conversation during his imprisonment.
 Main interlocutor: Phaedo, witness of the events, retells the events to a group of people.
Beginning of the dialogue:
Phaedo explains that there is a great time between Socrates’ trial and execution.
What is one of the things that Phaedo firstly admits?
 Phaedo witnessed the death of his friend but had no feeling of pity because Socrates appeared
happy and died nobly and without fear. Idea of God’s blessing while he his going down to the
underworld. He had a strange feeling between pleasure and pain: he realized that Socrates had
to die. Laughing and weeping.
= death isn’t in any way pitiful eventuality / we can die happily, nobly and fearlessly / divine blessing.
Death connected with philosophy.
Therefore, early stage in the dialogue
The death may operate as a philosophical and dialectical activity, occasion to reveal contradictions and
the higher and primordial principle called “Truth”.
Destiny of the soul: to remember an approach doomed between space and earth. But rhymes with
impossibility. Structure which provides accomplishment. The death can be seen as the ‘event’ of truth.
How does Phaedo describe the conversation between Socrates and his many guests?
 Phaedo was close to the prison the previous day during a daybreak
Death in Literature and Philosophy

 Each day, when the prison opened for visitors, P. and his friends spent a lot of their time with
Socrates.
 Day of execution: informed that the ship from Delos arrived.
 Went intro prison and found Socrates with his wife and baby.
 Socrates remarks that the pleasure is a strange thing. Strong relation to the pain: if a man catch
the first one, he is almost always bound to catch the other also like a creature with 2 heads.
Pleasure in pain = free to die.
= contradictory attitude and reactions / meaning of death that is opposite in a philosophical discourse.
Philo can be used to announce truth, just as the event of death / pleasure and pain have a common
origin.
Philo question: metaxy (in-between, transition between being and becoming, one and nothing). Only
philosophy is able to reach the truth, so placed higher than any other art.
Discussion between Cebes and Socrates: having a proper death is urgent for a philosopher. Cebes
raises the question of suicide (‘to do oneself violence’) + ‘if philosophers are so willing to die, why is
it wrong for them to kill themselves?’.
Socrates answer: men are in a kind of prison and that one must not free oneself of run away. Hard and
impressive doctrine. The Gods are our guardians and men are one of their possessions.”
Cf. Plato’s cave allegory.
For Socrates, both thoughts are justified and could be defended. He refers to his Apology and the
unfair treatment he received in that trial.
His thesis: the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying
and death.
How does Socrates defend his thesis on death?
 We believe in death; its existence is undeniable and unquestionable.
 Is anything else than the separation of the soul and the body? The answer for Socrates is no.
 For him, the true philosopher must despise body pleasures. A philo frees the soul from
association with the body as much as possible.
The preparation for death accommodates a rejection of bodily existence and the world of sensible
things. Importance of the deception (attempt to examine anything with the body is deceiving).
Death in Literature and Philosophy

B. CHRISTIAN AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN DEATH

Week 2: From St. Paul’s ‘First Letter to Corinthians,’ 15:1-58
Weekly reading:
‘The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 15:1-58.’ The New Oxford Annotated
Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2010. 2019-22. Print.
What is the issue St Paul talk about concerning death?
 “There is no resurrection of the death”. For the Greeks, the idea of resurrection doesn’t make
sense, there is no second coming.
 The letter process: reminder at first, about the fact that people will be saved if they listen. St
Paul reminds to the Corinthians an early Christian creed which proclaims the significance of
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection = foundation to the Christian religion, so
if they believe this message they will be saved.
 Importance: appearance of Jesus, St Paul provides his beliefs / Christ’s resurrection is not only
a fact and evidence but also primordial for Christian’s beliefs.
 If Corinthians don’t believe in resurrection, then their Christian faith has been vain. Serie of
syllogisms.
 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Christ’s resurrection is only the beginning of the
resurrection of all humans.
 Death and knowledge are closely linked. With the fall is the beginning of humanity (humanity
implies death). The idea is that God hasn’t abandoned humanity. Thematic of Adam and Eve
to illustrate the death and resurrection as entire parts of humanity / transubstantiation
(correspondence between humans and divine).
 Christ died and has been resurrected by humans.
 “God may be all in all” but also divided. Christ is infused with the divine so he cannot be
under God / as a human, he is in the other hand under God. Divinity is present in everything,
so death is absent in everything.
 Why are people baptized? “I die every day” = I am a Christian every day. Dying every day
means be saved.
 Invitation to sin no more.