Hermeneutical Reflections on Death and the Afterlife

Just as philosophy has traditionally been considered a means of dealing with death, so too can death offer interpretive insights into philosophical discourse and broader socio-cultural phenomena.This collection consists of both theoretical and practical essays. The theoretical essays explore how various philosophers have been influenced by the hermeneutic potential of death and the afterlife, while the practical essays consider how this reflective framework can illuminate contemporary phenomena, from expressions in fiction to religious traditions. These phenomena are not merely subjects to be interpreted, but frameworks through which religious, philosophical, cultural, and socio-political questions can be considered in a new light.These contributions address such topics as human extinction, aesthetic representations of the afterlife, personal reflections on near death experiences, secular death acceptance and the science of life extension, the interpretation of capitalism, and reincarnation. The featured contributors also draw on the work of thinkers such as Gianni Vattimo, Karl Marx, Wilhelm Dilthey, Jan Patocka, Michel Foucault, and Édouard Glissant. The combination of theoretical and practical approaches, as well as its interdisciplinary scope and novel methodological approach, center this volume as essential reading for those interested in philosophical, literary, and social understandings of death and the afterlife.