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An Inquiry Into the Metaphysical Causes of Death in Esan Culture

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Airoboman F. A.

IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych

2017

vol. 29/2

This essay focuses on the analyses of the metaphysical causes of death in Esan culture and the implications and evaluations of the beliefs in such causes. It begins by expositing the Esan understanding of death and then discusses how death constitutes mystery for Esan people. It holds that in Esan the question of ‘the why of death’, philosophically speaking, does not admit any satisfactory answer. The study then makes in-depth analyses of the Esan conceptions of the metaphysical causes of death, - as wrought by witches, wizards, diabolic persons, evil consequences, devil, spirits, deities, malevolent beings and God, - the attitudes such beliefs generate and what they imply - that death is bad, one ought not to die and indictment of innocent people as causal agents whenever human death occurs. The study argues that although there is the conception of death as good only for the aged, underneath such belief is the explicit metaphysical conception of all deaths as caused and thus, bad. Contrary to the people’s conception of death as bad, the study argues that death has some relevance to the living and the dead as well as some practical and moral implications for the living. It argues that death influences the people’s behavior and way of life concretely. In the course of inquiry, the study attempts simultaneously an excursion into comparative discourse with some other cultures.

An epistemological probing into the state and nature of death

100%

Airoboman F. A.

IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych

2017

vol. 29/1

This study is an epistemological investigation into death state and some ways people are put to death in error due to misunderstanding of actual state of death. The study probes in philosophic mannerism into existing conditions under which people are certified dead and into understanding when someone is actually dead. It holds that there are no univocal conceptions about these conditions since their understanding vary from place to place and in the passage of time due to increase in knowledge and development in medicine. Since some of those who are confirmed and pronounced dead do wake up, the study argues that any existing method of ascertaining death state is epistemologically inefficient and suspicious. It then raises issues that appertain to the ignorance and incompetence of doctors and others who confirm death cases and their methods or instruments of confirming death. The study argues analogically that since some of those whom doctors discharge against medical advice get well and since other conclusions they reach about patients and health cases (while relying on their knowledge and instrument of investigations) do sometimes prove otherwise or deviate from reality, possibly, some of those they declared dead may actually be alive. The study extends this wrong confirmation of death cases to occurrences outside hospital environments and from non-medical practitioners from different cultures and argues that all such death declaration just like those declared by doctors could be in error of judgement. It then argues that since what it exactly means to be dead is incontrovertibly controversial among people and in time, caution should be exercised in order not to be stocking people alive in mortuary, harvesting the organs of living people mistaken to be dead and burying people alive who are thought dead since they might probably be alive.

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2 IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych

2 Airoboman F. A.

2 2017

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An Inquiry Into the Metaphysical Causes of Death in Esan Culture

An epistemological probing into the state and nature of death