The Arab Institute for Research and Publishing in Beirut has released a new book by Dr. Ayoub Issa Abu Diyeh titled "How Do We Overcome the Fear of Death? Inspired by the Aspalathus Tree," in which he approaches death as a philosophical and human question that goes beyond being a mere biological ending, becoming instead a gateway to understanding life, its meaning, and the choices people make in light of their awareness of mortality.
اضافة اعلان
The book takes readers on an intellectual journey through the history of reflection on death, beginning with myths, religions, and Eastern wisdom, extending through ancient and modern philosophy and existentialist thought, and arriving at contemporary approaches that examine death from philosophical, psychological, and scientific angles. The author dwells on the views of major philosophers, from Socrates, Plato, Epicurus, and the Stoics, to Schopenhauer, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus, and finally Irvin Yalom, surveying their differing conceptions of death and its implications for human life.
Abu Diyeh does not offer a single answer to the question of the fear of death; instead, he places before the reader a set of questions about the meaning of existence, freedom, responsibility, and the impact a person leaves behind after passing. Death, in this view, is not the opposite of life but a part of it, one that prompts us to question life and to think about what makes it worth living.
The book also discusses shifts in the concept of death, from being seen in ancient thought as part of a cosmic order or divine decree, to becoming, in modern philosophy, an issue tied to consciousness, authenticity, and choice. It also addresses contemporary attempts to confront death through technology and the idea of immortality, set against calls to accept the finitude of existence as a truth that can give life greater meaning.
In the book's introduction, Abu Diyeh reviews how philosophers have confronted the question of death, not by fleeing from it but by facing it and reflecting on its meaning. For them, death was never merely a biological end but an existential experience, a moral boundary, and a key to understanding life.
The author argues that death exposes falsehood, dispels illusions, and confronts a person with the truth of their existence. As Heidegger put it, death makes us more aware of our being. Socrates, one of philosophy's most notable martyrs, did not flee from death because he did not see it as an evil, but regarded it as the ultimate test of virtue. Epicurus, meanwhile, reassured that death does not deserve fear, since we never experience it while it is present; and the Stoics called for accepting it as a natural part of life's cycle.
The book moves from Plato, who elevated the soul to the world of forms, to Schopenhauer, who saw in death a release from will and suffering, then to the existentialist philosophers, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus, who placed death at the heart of the question of the meaning of human existence in a transient world.
At the end of its journey, the book turns to contemporary philosophical and psychological voices, among them Irvin Yalom, who reintroduced the question of death within the therapy room, not merely as an ending but as a driving force toward a more honest, authentic, and deeper life.
The book raises fundamental questions about death: Is it an end or a beginning? The annihilation of the body or the passage of the soul? A moment of completion or a collapse of meaning and evidence of absurdity? Do we seek to avoid it in order to live longer, or contemplate it as a gateway to a deeper life? The book offers no single answer to these questions; rather, it forms something like a "philosophical mirror," in which the reader sees the diversity of human views on death across ages and cultures, and how reflecting on it became a means of understanding life, freedom, responsibility, and our relationship with others, and of living with greater richness and depth.
The book is not a sorrowful meditation on annihilation so much as a meditation on life through death, an invitation to philosophize not because people love the unknown, but because they fear living without understanding why they live.
In the book's conclusion, the author explains that his philosophical journey reshaped his conception of death, as a key to understanding life rather than merely its end.
The philosophers' answers to these questions varied, not necessarily as contradictions, but as a result of approaching the same issue from different angles. This journey reveals a fundamental shift in how death is viewed, from an imposed ending to a horizon for reflecting on authenticity, meaning, and freedom. While the ancients saw it as part of a cosmic order or divine decision, in modern thought it became a moral and existential factor that drives people to choose and take responsibility.
At the same time, attempts to overcome death through technology or the pursuit of symbolic immortality, as in some posthumanist theses, do not erase the basic fact that human beings are finite, temporal creatures living within conditions and limits they cannot easily transcend. From this perspective, accepting this finitude may be more liberating than open-ended promises of immortality.
The present challenge, according to the author, is not limited to biological death but extends to what might be called "moral death," amid the acceleration of modern life: the loss of meaning, estrangement from the self, disconnection from others, violence, exploitation, and the commodification of the human being. For this reason, reviving reflection on death, as philosophy and art call for, is no longer merely a contemplative exercise but has become a cultural and ethical necessity.
Abu Diyeh affirms that death should not be understood as closing the book of life, but as a reference point that gives meaning to what came before it, opening up questions for a person about the impact they leave behind. From here, the more important question is not "what comes after death?" but "what do we leave alive after we're gone?"
People go through life treating death as a postponed guest, trying to delay its arrival and avoid thinking about it, yet it remains present in the details of daily life: in the features of those we love, in the changes of our bodies, in our aging, and in the moments of farewell left by the departure of loved ones and friends.
The author holds that philosophy allows people to confront death and reflect on it, not in order to defeat it, but to understand its significance. Every attempt to understand death leads, at its core, to a rediscovery of life, revealing the human being as a creature that questions, fears, loves, creates, and searches for meaning.
In this context, immortality is tied not so much to the survival of the body as to the survival of one's impact: in a kind word, a useful deed, a poem, or a beautiful memory that remains alive in the memory of others. In this way, death is transformed from a silent ending into another meaning of life, embodied in the impact a person leaves behind.
The book concludes that anxiety about death, heavy as it is, is an authentic part of the human experience, and that the fear of it has, throughout history, driven people to create meaning, build civilizations, produce art, and shape religions and philosophies. And if biological death is inevitable, human beings continue to resist it symbolically through thought, creativity, and work, affirming that meaning is what gives life its value in the face of mortality.
