Human in Death

Human in Death PDF Author: Associate Professor of Religion Kecia Ali
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481306522
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Kecia Ali's Human in Death explores the best-selling futuristic suspense series In Death, written by romance legend Nora Roberts under the pseudonym J. D. Robb. Centering on troubled NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire tycoon husband Roarke, the novels explore vital questions about human flourishing. Through close readings of more than fifty novels and novellas published over two decades, Ali analyzes the ethical world of Robb's New York circa 2060. Robb compellingly depicts egalitarian relationships, satisfying work, friendships built on trust, and an array of models of femininity and family. At the same time, the series' imagined future replicates some of the least admirable aspects of contemporary society. Sexual violence, police brutality, structural poverty and racism, and government surveillance persist in Robb's fictional universe, raising urgent moral challenges. So do ordinary ethical quandaries around trust, intimacy, and interdependence in marriage, family, and friendship. Ali celebrates the series' ethical successes, while questioning its critical moral omissions. She probes the limits of Robb's imagined world and tests its possibilities for fostering identity, meaning, and mattering of human relationships across social difference. Ali capitalizes on Robb's futuristic fiction to reveal how careful and critical reading is an ethical act.

Human in Death

Human in Death PDF Author: Associate Professor of Religion Kecia Ali
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481306522
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kecia Ali's Human in Death explores the best-selling futuristic suspense series In Death, written by romance legend Nora Roberts under the pseudonym J. D. Robb. Centering on troubled NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire tycoon husband Roarke, the novels explore vital questions about human flourishing. Through close readings of more than fifty novels and novellas published over two decades, Ali analyzes the ethical world of Robb's New York circa 2060. Robb compellingly depicts egalitarian relationships, satisfying work, friendships built on trust, and an array of models of femininity and family. At the same time, the series' imagined future replicates some of the least admirable aspects of contemporary society. Sexual violence, police brutality, structural poverty and racism, and government surveillance persist in Robb's fictional universe, raising urgent moral challenges. So do ordinary ethical quandaries around trust, intimacy, and interdependence in marriage, family, and friendship. Ali celebrates the series' ethical successes, while questioning its critical moral omissions. She probes the limits of Robb's imagined world and tests its possibilities for fostering identity, meaning, and mattering of human relationships across social difference. Ali capitalizes on Robb's futuristic fiction to reveal how careful and critical reading is an ethical act.

Death and the Human Condition

Death and the Human Condition PDF Author: David P. Ausubel
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595231977
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This is an interdisciplinary work on the somewhat culturally-tabooed topic of death—psychological, psychiatric, historical, developmental, biogenetic, biomedical, and theological—its nature, consequences, and implications as explored and conceptualized by current living Americans. Included also among its hypothesized and associated concepts is the doctrine of an afterlife, as well as various attitudes and reactions to death as the perceived chief limiting factor of the human condition (denial, avoidance, anger, etc.). Unlike its handling by other books on death, the close relationship of death as a terminating phenomenon of life is thoroughly explored in the context of such central concepts of Christian moral theology as salvation, justification, free will, justice, love, anger, sin, expiation, forgiveness, retribution, etc. This book is undoubtedly discriminably different from other serious works of non-fiction if only because it deals with the culturally-tabooed topic of death. Nevertheless, many individuals in all cultures are at least privately or secretly interested in this topic because of the mystery surrounding it, but usually more so, because it inevitably involves themselves in the loss of their own identities in their own culture, and also, very relevantly, stimulates much speculation about their own fate in the hereafter. All of the controversial issues in this book are examined both for and against the Christian theistic view by presenting material by a Christian non-believer as well as by a Christian believer.

Death, Society and Human Experience (1-download)

Death, Society and Human Experience (1-download) PDF Author: Robert Kastenbaum
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317348958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
Providing an understanding of the relationship with death, both as an individual and as a member of society. This book is intended to contribute to your understanding of your relationship with death, both as an individual and as a member of society. Kastenbaum shows how individual and societal attitudes influence both how and when we die and how we live and deal with the knowledge of death and loss. Robert Kastenbaum is a renowned scholar who developed one of the world's first death education courses and introduced the first text for this market. This landmark text draws on contributions from the social and behavioral sciences as well as the humanities, such as history, religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts, to provide thorough coverage of understanding death and the dying process. Learning Goals Upon completing this book, readers should be able to: -Understand the relationship with death, both as an individual and as a member of society -See how social forces and events affect the length of our lives, how we grieve, and how we die -Learn how dying people are perceived and treated in our society and what can be done to provide the best possible care -Master an understanding of continuing developments and challenges to hospice (palliative care). -Understand what is becoming of faith and doubt about an afterlife

Displaying Death and Animating Life

Displaying Death and Animating Life PDF Author: Jane C. Desmond
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022637551X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The number of ways in which humans interact with animals is almost incalculable. From beloved household pets to the steak on our dinner tables, the fur in our closets to the Babar books on our shelves, taxidermy exhibits to local zoos, humans have complex, deep, and dependent relationships with the animals in our ecosystems. In Displaying Death and Animating Life, Jane C. Desmond puts those human-animal relationships under a multidisciplinary lens, focusing on the less obvious, and revealing the individualities and subjectivities of the real animals in our everyday lives. Desmond, a pioneer in the field of animal studies, builds the book on a number of case studies. She conducts research on-site at major museums, taxidermy conventions, pet cemeteries, and even at a professional conference for writers of obituaries. She goes behind the scenes at zoos, wildlife clinics, and meetings of pet cemetery professionals. We journey with her as she meets Kanzi, the bonobo artist, and a host of other animal-artists—all of whom are preparing their artwork for auction. Throughout, Desmond moves from a consideration of the visual display of unindividuated animals, to mourning for known animals, and finally to the marketing of artwork by individual animals. The first book in the new Animal Lives series, Displaying Death and Animating Life is a landmark study, bridging disciplines and reaching across divisions from the humanities and social sciences to chart new territories of investigation.

What Does it Mean to be Human? Life, Death, Personhood and the Transhumanist Movement

What Does it Mean to be Human? Life, Death, Personhood and the Transhumanist Movement PDF Author: D. John Doyle
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319949500
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This book is a critical examination of the philosophical and moral issues in relation to human enhancement and the various related medical developments that are now rapidly moving from the laboratory into the clinical realm. In the book, the author critically examines technologies such as genetic engineering, neural implants, pharmacologic enhancement, and cryonic suspension from transhumanist and bioconservative positions, focusing primarily on moral issues and what it means to be a human in a setting where technological interventions sometimes impact strongly on our humanity. The author also introduces the notion that death is a process rather than an event, as well as identifies philosophical and clinical limitations in the contemporary determination of brain death as a precursor to organ procurement for transplantation. The discussion on what exactly it means to be dead is later applied to explore philosophical and clinical issues germane to the cryonics movement. Written by a physician/ scientist and heavily referenced to the peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature, the book is aimed at advanced students and academics but should be readable by any intelligent reader willing to carry out some side-reading. No prior knowledge of moral philosophy is assumed, as the various key approaches to moral philosophy are outlined early in the book.

Persons, Humanity, and the Definition of Death

Persons, Humanity, and the Definition of Death PDF Author: John P. Lizza
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801882508
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
In this riveting and timely work, John P. Lizza presents the first comprehensive analysis of personhood and humanity in the context of defining death. Rejecting the common assumption that human or personal death is simply a biological phenomenon for biologists or physicians to define, Lizza argues that the definition of death is also a matter for metaphysical reflection, moral choice, and cultural acceptance. Lizza maintains that defining death remains problematic because basic ontological, ethical, and cultural issues have never been adequately addressed. Advances in life-sustaining technology and organ transplantation have led to revision of the legal definition of death. It is generally accepted that death occurs when all functions of the brain have ceased. However, legal and clinical cases involving postmortem pregnancy, individuals in permanent vegetative state, those with anencephaly, and those with severe dementia challenge the neurological criteria. Is "brain death" really death? Should the neurological criteria be expanded to include individuals in permanent vegetative state, with anencephaly, and those with severe dementia? What metaphysical, ethical, and cultural considerations are relevant to answering such questions? Although Lizza accepts a pluralistic approach to the legal definition of death, he proposes a nonreductive, substantive view in which persons are understood as "constituted by" human organisms. This view, he argues, provides the best account of human nature as biological, moral, and cultural and supports a consciousness-related formulation of death. Through an analysis of legal and clinical cases and a discussion of alternative concepts of personhood, Lizza casts greater light on the underlying themes of a complex debate.

Aging, Death, and Human Longevity

Aging, Death, and Human Longevity PDF Author: Christine Overall
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520938809
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
With the help of medicine and technology we are living longer than ever before. As human life spans have increased, the moral and political issues surrounding longevity have become more complex. Should we desire to live as long as possible? What are the social ramifications of longer lives? How does a longer life span change the way we think about the value of our lives and about death and dying? Christine Overall offers a clear and intelligent discussion of the philosophical and cultural issues surrounding this difficult and often emotionally charged issue. Her book is unique in its comprehensive presentation and evaluation of the arguments—both ancient and contemporary—for and against prolonging life. It also proposes a progressive social policy for responding to dramatic increases in life expectancy. Writing from a feminist perspective, Overall highlights the ways that our biases about race, class, and gender have affected our views of elderly people and longevity, and her policy recommendations represent an effort to overcome these biases. She also covers the arguments surrounding the question of the "duty to die" and includes a provocative discussion of immortality. After judiciously weighing the benefits and the risks of prolonging human life, Overall persuasively concludes that the length of life does matter and that its duration can make a difference to the quality and value of our lives. Her book will be an essential guide as we consider our social responsibilities, the meaning of human life, and the prospects of living longer.

The Human Encounter with Death

The Human Encounter with Death PDF Author: Stanislav Grof
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


The Death of Humanity

The Death of Humanity PDF Author: Richard Weikart
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621575624
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers PDF Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393324826
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A look inside the world of forensics examines the use of human cadavers in a wide range of endeavors, including research into new surgical procedures, space exploration, and a Tennessee human decay research facility.