Death: all is in terms of death; death is metaphor for all meaning
Relationships
Bad/ death= Good/ life
nietzche elucidated this in genealogy of morals:
Denial of death= Will to power
Anything that threatens life becomes fundamental.
Conservative is preservation
Progressive is growth
Two choices (one metaphor); Dichotomies:
Physical & symbolic
Body & mind (aka spirit/soul)
Beliefs are devices which deny death or Procrastinate our finality
life or death
Oppressor or oppressed
Subject or object
Good or bad
Busy or lazy
Right or wrong
Physical or spiritual
Point or relation
Love or hate
When you accept death, you are free.
Sin is being toward death. Man is a being toward death. (Heidegger said man is a being-toward-death)
3/ delta: Us-> otherness-> ?
Why is 2 important? Binary
3? strength, life, eternity
7? Perfection, completion
Examine etymology of ‘subject’ and ‘object’
All ideologies (religion/ gov/ nation/ culture) perform death denial and transcend us from the inevitability of death.
Death reminds of the finitude of existence. It allows inconsistency.
Death destabilizes.
Anything that stabilizes, performs to sustain, is adopted. is an illusion.
Treat others different-> causes division and threatens life.
Treat others as same-> reinforces life illusion
Any difference is perceived as threat to life/ illusion/ denial of death.
All difference- that is, all threat- must be dealt with through total annihilation.
All human activity is an act to deny death.
All human activity is characterized by the denial of death.
Iraq war? Purpose? Create threat. Distant threat (ideological/ symbolic threat) that doesn’t threaten physical life. Consilidates ppl’s ideologies. Preserves ideology. Creates false binary perception.
Truth/ falsity exists. Logical positivism, could exist. Doesn’t matter. Towards what matters. end ultimately matters. Conclusion matters. we start with ends, then justify means, elaborate means, beliefs, concepts, morals. All ends Can be justified with premises- created or preexisting. But do they/ premises correspond to other means? must produce a harmony between means. (See Velleman)
Truth/ false doesn’t matter. Asks wrong question. What matters is conclusion and who that serves. Validity is besides the point.
Which illusion did you buy? Which best deludes the inevitability of your death? The most spiritual are the most threatened.
William Dare 