Acting on Death
Keywords:
Death, nature, ecological philosophy, Andrei Platonov, Russian cosmism, Nikolai Fyodorov, Freya Mathews, Val Plumwood
Abstract
In this essay, I focus on the problem of death as both a contemporary phenomenon that is either very weakly accounted for or even vilified and as a constitutive part of one’s experiential and decision-making abilities. I posit the need to somehow reintroduce death to our worldview as something acceptable. I investigate the overlapping of human-death and human- nature relationship in various strands of liberatory thinking, such as trans- and posthumanism and Russian cosmism. I subsequently turn to Andrei Platonov’s literary work as a depiction of liberation-in-progress and its complications and to the philosophies of Val Plumwood and Freya Mathews, the representatives of nature-centered, ecological philosophy. The two accounts have a common point of departure but nevertheless propose substantially different perspectives as to how the relations within and with nature are constructed. I conclude that the adoption of a more laissez-faire stance toward death also means a more careful consideration of nature’s value.
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Bostrom, Nick (2003). “Human Genetic Enhancements: A Transhumanist Perspective.” The Journal of Value Inquiry 37(4): 493–506.
Fyodorov, Nikolai (1995a). Muzey, yego smysl y naznacheniye. [Museum, its meaning and purpose]. In Collected Works, Vol. 2, 398–463 Moscow: Progress.
Fyodorov, Nikolai (1995b). O smertnosti. [On mortality]. In Collected Works, Vol. 2, 203. Moscow: Progress.
Fyodorov, Nikolai (2008). Filosofia obschego dela. [Philosophy of the common task] [1906]. Moscow: Eksmo.
Heidegger, Martin (2006). Chto zovyotsya myshleniyem? [What is called thinking] [1951–1952]. Trans. Elfir Sagetdinov. Moscow: Territoriya Buduschego.
Kass, Leon (2003). Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness, Washington D.C.: President’s Council on Bioethics, Executive Office of the President.
Khapaeva, Dina (2020). The Celebration of Death in Contemporary Culture. [The celebra- tion of death in contemporary culture]. Trans. Dmitry Uskov and Larisa Zhitkova. Moscow: Novoye Literaturnoye Obozrenye.
Khapaeva, Dina (2017). Zanimatel'naya smert'. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Lexin, Vladimir (2010). “To Die in Russia.” Mir Rossii [The world of Russia] 4: 124–61. Lytkin, Vladimir (2012). “Filosophskiye y Antropologicheskiye Ideli Russkogo Kosmisma [Philosophic and anthropological ideals of Russian cosmism]. Vestnik Vyatskogo Universiteta [Journal of Vyatsky University] 1(2): 16–20.
MacFarlane, James Michael (2014). “Boundary Work: Post- and Transhumanism, Part I.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 1: 52–56.
Magun, Artemy (2020). Iskus Nebytia. Encyclopedia Dialekticheskikh Nauk. Tom 1. Otritsatelnaya estetika [The temptation of non-being. The encyclopedia of the dialectical sciences. Vol. 1. Negative aesthetics]. St Petersburg: European University at St Petersburg Publishing House.
Masing-Delic, Irene (2020). Uprazdnenie smerti. Mif o spasenii v russkoi literature XX veka. [Abolishing death. A salvation myth of Russian twentieth-century literature] [1992].
Trans. Mikhail Abushik. St Petersburg: Academic Studies Press / BiblioRossica.
Mathews, Freya (1991). The Ecological Self. London: Routledge.
Mathews, Freya (2003). For Love of Matter. A Contemporary Panpsychism. New York: State University of New York Press.
Murphy, John P. (1990). Pragmatism from Peirce to Davidson, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Naess, Arne (1989). Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy [1974]. Trans. David Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Neiskusstvenny Intellect [Inartificial intelligence]. Podcast. 27 November, 2020. https://youtu.be/eJlFQ1Ffi48.
Pierce, Charles S. (2011). Philosophical Writings of Peirce [1955]. Ed. Justus Buchler. New York: Dover Publications.
Murphy, John P. (1990). Pragmatism from Peirce to Davidson, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Platonov, Andrei (1978). Chevengur [1972]. Trans. Anthony Olcott. Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis Publishers.
Platonov, Andrei (2009). Chevengur [1972]. Moscow: Eksmo.
Platonov, Andrei (1975). The Foundation Pit [1968]. Trans. Mirra Ginsburg. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.
Plumwood, Val (2002). Environmental Culture. The Ecological Crisis of Reason. London: Routledge.
Plumwood, Val (1993). Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge. Post Nauka (2015). “Russki kosmism — Alexei Kozyrev” [Russian cosmism — Alexei Kozyrev]. YouTube, 15 April, 2015. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= –55xfzp_REU
Ranisch, Robert, and Stefan Lorenz Sorgner (Eds.) (2014). Post‐ and Transhumanism. An Introduction. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Robert, Jason Scott, and Françoise Baylis (2003). “Crossing Species Boundaries.” The American Journal of Bioethics 3(3): 1–14.
Sokolova, Anna (2011). “Funeral Without the Deceased: the Transformation of the Traditional Burying Ritual.” Antropologicheskij Forum / Forum for Anthropology and Culture 15: 187–202.
Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich (2021). Lectures on Godmanhood [1878]. Copenhagen: Hassell Street Press.
Spinoza, Benedict (1677). Ethics. App Ethica. http://app.ethica-spinoza.net/en/connections
Vernadsky, Vladimir (1943). “Some Words About the Noosphere.” 21st Century 1: 16–21.
Warwick, Kevin (2004). “I, Cyborg.” Kevin Warwick. http://kevinwarwick.coventry.ac.uk/i-cyborg/.
Published
2023-01-30
How to Cite
Chaltseva, A. (2023). Acting on Death. Stasis, 14(2). Retrieved from https://stasisjournal.net/index.php/journal/article/view/226
Section
Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
