[MD] The MOQ and Death

[Steven Peterson]

On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 12:51 PM, X Acto <xacto at rocketmail.com> wrote:
> Steve,
> Socrates, stated that philosophy was the preparation for death.
>  "To fear death, gentleman, is no other than to think oneself wise
> when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know" (Apology, 32).
>
> In the Pragmatic tradition, I believe Pirsig would agree.


Steve:
Can you say more about what Socrates is getting at here. So is fear of
death the result of ignorance? Socrates here seems to be suggesting
that we fear because we don't realize how ignorant we actually are.
Would we be less fearful if we saw death as more of an unknown? Why?

I think it is a somewhat common suggestion among certain philosophers
and spiritual teachers or religious traditions that we ought to
"practice dying."

Socrates is quoted as suggesting this in Pheado
 "...correct philosophers practice how to die,
and death is less feared by them of all people."

How does one "practice dying"? Is it by meditating on one's own death?
How does doing so make us less fearful?

I believe that there is something called the "Book of the Dead"
somewhere in some version of Buddhism where dying adherents were asked
to talk about what was happening with them on their death beds. Anyone
know about it and if it can tell us what it is to "practice dying"

Pirsig talks about the tragic death of his son Chris in an afterword
to ZAMM, but I don't recall it as addressing how one should face her
own mortality.

I think the pragmatism of James implies a plurality of approaches to
death as needed since different dispositions (the tough minded/tender
minded, born once/twice born) require different philosophies.

Best,
Steve