HW 30 - Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project

I endeavored to explore the inherent fear of death in our society, and how it is related to age, career or extracurricular, and gender. We read an excerpt from “Staring at The Sun” by Irvin D. Yalom. It addressed ways to deal with death in a peaceful way, and drew from the philosophical musings of Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher.  Epicurus argued that the ultimate cause of human suffering is two feelings commonly present at the same time: the omnipresent fear of death, and the craving for eternal life.

Epicurus argued that death is not worth fearing, because the soul dies with the body, and thus ceases to exist. This argument is known as the Mortality of The Soul. If the soul is not alive when the body dies, then death is nothing to us; there is nothing to fear. He said, “Why fear death when we can never perceive it?” (Yalom).  He also said, “Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences no sensations, and that which has no sensation is nothing to us” (Epicurus). He called this argument the Ultimate Nothingness of Death. Epicurus’ Argument of Symmetry addresses the essential sameness between a human’s pre-birth state of being and post-death state of being (or rather, non-being). This argument encourages one to question the rationality of fearing the second state of non-existence, and ignoring the first state of non-existence.

Yalom introduced the concept of Rippling in his book; it is a solution to discomfort caused by awareness of the “finiteness and transiency” of life. Rippling is essentially the effect we have on others. Some do this by immortalizing their name, creating art that will outlive them, or simply leaving something from their life experience: wisdom, guidance, virtue, comfort, a memory.

           
               Resources:

Yalom, Irvin. . "The Ripple Effect." Therapy Today 19.4 (2008): n. pag. Web. 16 Jan 2011. http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/416/

Epicurus. "Principal Doctrines." Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy. Vincent Cooke, 04 Dec 1996. Web. 16 Jan 2011. <http://www.epicurus.net/en/principal.html>.

Epicurus, . "Letter to Monoeceus." Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy. Vincent Cooke, 04 Dec 1996. Web. 16 Jan 2011. <http://www.epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html>.

           
I wanted to explore if rippling is an indication of the fear of death, and if career, commitments, age, or gender could be used to predict one’s need to ripple, and thus their fear of death. According to Yalom, people comfort themselves and deal with their eventual death with the idea that their memory will live after they die. It follows that people who wish to be remembered are probably especially afraid of death. I created a survey, which questioned the survey takers’ age, general career/commitments, gender, fear of death, the traits they would like to be remembered for, and their desire to be remembered after their demise. Because the gross majority of the survey-takers were teenagers, I chose to make the age range a constant variable. Because it is impossible to quantify the effect of a career or extracurricular on others, I decided to forgo the exploration of the relationship between commitments and the desire to ripple. 

                When questioned about value of being remembered and the horror of being forgotten, the answers fell into four basic categories: Would rather be forgotten, indifference, would rather be remembered, and life was meaningless if forgotten. There were twenty survey takers, half of which were females between the age of 14 and 18, and half of which were males of the same age range. This is the data in a graph, with the x-axis being “The importance of being remembered” and the y-axis being “Number of people”:

I learned that most female teenagers would rather be remembered, but they feel that their life still has meaning if they are forgotten or had no effect on others. Most males, on the other hand, feel that their life was meaningless if they are forgotten, because they made no difference, and accomplished nothing. This is implies to me that teenage males in our society are more afraid of death than teenaged females, because there are more males who feel the need to ripple than there are females. However, this survey was on a very small scale and is not necessarily an accurate indication of the relationship between gender and fear of death in our society.

 I learned from this project that teenaged males are probably more afraid of death than teenaged females are, and thus live in more misery. This conclusion is based on the assumption that Epicurus was right when he said that the ultimate cause of misery is the fear of death and the desire for immortality. This deduction about males vs. females matters, because it is an indication of how men and women should be treated. In order to feel that they have purpose and meaning, teenaged males need to feel that they are making a lasting difference, whether in someone’s life, or via a monumental accomplishment. This deduction is also important because it helps to explain the competitive nature of males, and enable me and others to show empathy to males who are obnoxiously competitive. I also learned from this project that conducting a meaningful survey requires more time than I took to do this one. In order to find enough data that can lead to valid inferences, many people must partake. This takes time, effort, and in this case, tact. The questions in this survey are not quite appropriate to ask in a phone call, unless the people conversing know each other very well and converse regularly.