What happens after we die Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What happens after we die - Essay Example In the modern times, people became interested with its occurrence that they applied science to test about the life after death. Some peer-reviewed studies had found such memories in children but they remained non-conclusive because no tests were sufficient to measure it.It was even doubted greatly by skeptic scientists. The life after death seems to be hard to be proven. It may or may not exist. Some naturalists may just say that life will just cease once biological death approaches and consciousness will fade too. It only means that the concept of the soul is even under debate if it truly exists or not. Personally, I may think of the concept of life after death as subjective because various people have different notions regarding it. It is still not proven by science until now. For the paper regarding the life after death, the focus would be on the work of Joseph Pieper, the author of Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Pieper was a philosopher from Germany who was the primary proponent of the New Thomistic wave as a philosophy since he is part of the Catholic Church. Joseph Pieper learned various fields in social science from sociology to philosophy from popular universities. He had worked as a writer and sociologist until he pursued being a professor in the University of Munster where he also studied. His perspective was influenced greatly by the ways of Thomas Aquinas together with the ideologies of the Greek philosopher Plato. In the first chapter which is entitled The Philosophical Act, Pieper was very philosophical. The meaning was so deep in the chapter where he talked about the common good and the common need (Pieper 78). He might want to tell something about how philosophy can cause disturbance but it was left to the reader to identify what kind of disturbance did Pieper want to convey to the readers. Probably he tried to connect the philosophy of common good and common needs as people go for the utilitarian world filled with work to satisfy the needs to s urvive. I can see his point regarding the philosophy that he promotes. Nowadays consumer culture is prevalent and sometimes it goes beyond the necessity. As a result, crimes increase, imbalance in nature is observed and destruction of the environment is noticeable and all of them happen in the name of greed. People live on the outside world and I may not say that I am not part of it. Sometimes being too busy with the supply and demand, people become accustomed to the materialistic world where all that matters is the functional basis of living and things are compartmentalized. Probably Pieper did not say that it is bad to engage in such a world or system but he wanted to also point out the importance of the oneness or the unity of people despite of differences. It is even linked to the practice of spending the seventh day of the week as a break from work and worship God. For him, it is also an essential component in life that even transcends beyond the common needs which the utilitar ian world provides. It only shows that the common need is a subset of the common good because the latter is more complex which requires something beyond the physical and material needs. December 1, 2012: Leisure: The Basis of Culture Chapters One and Two Another thing that Pieper pointed out was the definition of leisure. Sometimes culture had dictated what leisure is but actually the roots of leisure is seen when people are at work. They are busy. He also pointed out that leisure should involve not just the mechanistic or functional way of doing things without having time for rest or not serious activities. Sometimes work becomes not so engaging and people just do what they are doing for the sake of doing it. It is in contrast with what Pieper had said that work can be leisure if people have the time to reflect or contemplate. He pushed the idea of having enjoyment and appreciation on what is being done. Personally, the writer of the reaction paper thinks of it as an art