Suicide, Chpt 8 Questions

*new* 27Oct11
Report about Bernie Maddoff & wife suicide attempts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/business/madoffs-tried-to-commit-suicide-wife-says.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

Some resources re: suicide
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/10/10/magazine/1194817120290/suicide-on-campus.html


http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention/index.shtml

http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/index.html

Chpt 5/Dualism/Descartes/Personal Identity Questions

Have you seen The Matrix?  It is based on Descartes' ideas about dreaming.

Can human qualities and behaviors,such as loving and hating, dreaming and hoping, struggling and striving,imagining and inventing, just be explained totally in terms of physiochemical processes?


If existences of our personalities are only associated with our bodies, how can there be life after the death of the body? Do our souls have personalities?


Can Descartes “I think therefore I am” philosophical belief be applied to determine who truly “is?” Do PVS patients exist in Descartes eyes?


Is there such a thing as self? Does one’s self live on after death (in terms of persistent personal identity)?

Current Events October

From Anne:

This was a flashback from last Thursday (6 Oct) that talked about a local event that happend in the 70's and 80's. I thought it was interesting because it was in Cincinnati and you just don't expect stuff like this to hit home. http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/Donald-Harvey-The-Angel-Of-Death.htm

also,
We referenced Jonestown a few weeks ago, but you all probably don't know what happened there:
http://entertainment.salon.com/2011/10/10/a_thousand_lives_what_really_happened_in_jonestown/singleton/?mobile.html   

Religion, metaphysics, possible afterlife

What does studying religions that aren't your own help you with?

Could a well-informed clergy person help you with questions of a spiritual nature? Explain.

Do all of us, regardless of particular faith, include agnostic & atheist, have spiritual needs? Identify some of those needs and elaborate on how clergy can help (or not).

Human Nature: dualistic?

Do you think Descartes & Plato are right that we are mind plus bodies? What does that imply, if anything, about an afterlife?

Existentialism

What questions do you still have? What have you learned from the Existentialists about death, dying, and living?

Dving Bell & Butterfly film

How does this film relate to class material?