The anguish determined by the representation of death is largely documented. The Terror Management Theory [TMT] considers the awareness of mortality a fundamental factor in all forms of human behaviours and shows the relationship between the awareness of death and the exigency to avoid the causes of dying. The contribute analyses TMT which considers immortality as a “myth”. The problem consists in the definition of the reason for this conviction and in the fact that TMT research is impliedly founded on a specific “human view”: the “Darwinian human”, who is only an animal destined to die, because his/her self-awareness is only a brain function: “cerebral material” secreting thought. The discussion is considered in relation to the metaphysical and mythological point of view. It is presented the thought of Emanuele Severino, who is recognized as the most important thinker of the Italian philosophical School, is our reference frame. On this basis, the concept of “nihilism” is discussed including the theme of history of Western culture and the representations of the death problem in a logical form. In this way Darwinian conceptions of human is confuted.
The representation of death between ontological/logical thought and psychological dimension
TESTONI, INES
2009
Abstract
The anguish determined by the representation of death is largely documented. The Terror Management Theory [TMT] considers the awareness of mortality a fundamental factor in all forms of human behaviours and shows the relationship between the awareness of death and the exigency to avoid the causes of dying. The contribute analyses TMT which considers immortality as a “myth”. The problem consists in the definition of the reason for this conviction and in the fact that TMT research is impliedly founded on a specific “human view”: the “Darwinian human”, who is only an animal destined to die, because his/her self-awareness is only a brain function: “cerebral material” secreting thought. The discussion is considered in relation to the metaphysical and mythological point of view. It is presented the thought of Emanuele Severino, who is recognized as the most important thinker of the Italian philosophical School, is our reference frame. On this basis, the concept of “nihilism” is discussed including the theme of history of Western culture and the representations of the death problem in a logical form. In this way Darwinian conceptions of human is confuted.
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