Does Death Render Life Absurd?

In this paper, I assess the claim that death renders life absurd. First, I characterize absurdity as something we perceive in situations involving extreme disharmonies which strike us as unexpected or unacceptable. Next, I outline several potential disharmonies which death might introduce into our existence (such as the disharmony between our dignity and capacities, and the undignified annihilation which death promises), but suggest that these examples need not be seen as necessarily absurd; there are perspectives available to us from which these facts can appear to be acceptable aspects of life. Finally, I consider a more problematic case of absurdity—that human beings allegedly fail to grasp the truth of their mortality—but suggest that the underlying disharmony here can be eliminated provided we develop an authentic attitude toward death (and that this is possible, despite some objections). In short, I argue that none of the most obvious potential absurdities which might arise from our mortality are strong enough to entail the claim that death inevitably renders life absurd, at least on one plausible and interesting interpretation of that claim

The “other” : The Lukan Jesus and Lévinas

Emmanuel Lévinas’s philosophy of the “other” is investigated and brought into conversation with how Jesus regarded his “other” through a Lukan perspective (the gospel of Luke) of Jesus. Lévinas’s philosophy of the “other” is considered. The focus of Lévinas’s philosophical works is the primacy of an ethical relationship of the “self” with the “other”. This is described as “ethics as first philosophy”. Lévinas (1985:98) revises Dostoyevsky’s quotation to support the ethical responsibility of the “self” towards the “other”: “The I always has one responsibility more than all the others”. Lévinas constantly examines the question of the infinite demand of the ethical relationship with the “other”. For Lévinas, the “other” is truly present through the face of the “other”. According to Lévinas, the “other” can never be fully understood and does not become part of the “self”. The “other” Lévinas focuses on promoting the humanity of the “other”. The world in which Jesus lived differs radically from the world we fi nd ourselves in today. New Testament documents were written for specific early Christian communities in specific social and cultural contexts. Using the social scientific method, the customs, perspectives, and values related to how first-century Mediterranean people lived in their world and dealt with an “other” are investigated. The purpose of the social scientific method, applied to the New Testament, is to establish how the original audience understood the text when it was read aloud. If the text and its original historical meaning are examined, the message the author wanted to convey can be better understood. How the “self” (or rather own group) interacted with the “other” (group) within the first-century Mediterranean world is investigated. Examining the role of values such as honour and shame, the image of god as patron, what was regarded as clean and unclean and the function of patron-subject relationships, helps to better understand the original meaning of texts written in a first-century world. The writers of the gospels in the New Testament had different perspectives on who Jesus was. Who Jesus was, from the perspective of Mark, Matthew, John and Luke has been examined. Through a selection of texts from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’s attitude and actions toward his “other” in the Gospel of Luke are analysed. Jesus proposes and enacts a new kingdom where everyone who is considered an outsider through the lens of the first-century Mediterranean social world is welcome and loved. In this new kingdom of God, boundaries and advantages created by ethnicity, gender, status, and age are nullified. Jesus notices his “other”, shows deep compassion towards those in need, and holistically restores the “other” for them to rejoin their communities. There are many similarities between Jesus’s perspective and Lévinas’s philosophy of the “other”. Thematic analogies are investigated concerning status and honour, the humanity of the “other”, love as law, enmity, requirements of discipleship, social justice, and reciprocity. Jesus’s actions and Lévinas’s theory of the “other” suggest that general reciprocity must be applied when engaging with the “other”. General reciprocity refers to interactions that are focused on the social interests of the “other”. A proposal about what South Africans can learn from Lévinas and Jesus about “otherness”, equality, and diversity is made. An approach to embrace outsiders is proposed. This study regards values such as diversity, equality, “otherness”, general reciprocity, a position in the face of the other, relationships, embracing foreignness, and welcoming unfamiliarity as key principles, which form the basis of the study.Emmanuel Lévinas se filosofi e van die “ander” word ondersoek en in gesprek gebring met hoe die Lukaanse Jesus sy “ander” hanteer het. Die fokus van Lévinas se filosofiese werke is die voorrang van ’n etiese verhouding van die “self” met die “ander”. Deur gebruik te maak van die sosiaalwetenskaplike metode, word Jesus se gesindheid en optrede teenoor sy “ander” in die evangelie van Lukas oorweeg. Jesus skep nuwe koninkrykswaardes en sluit mense wat “anders” was in die familie van God in. In hierdie nuwe koninkryk word grense en vooroordele wat deur etnisiteit, geslag, status en ouderdom geskep word, tot niet gemaak. Die raakpunte tussen Jesus se hantering van die “ander” vanuit ’n seleksie van Lukaanse tekste en Lévinas se filosofie, word bespreek. ’n Voorstel oor wat Suid-Afrikaners oor andersheid, gelykheid en diversiteit kan leer en ’n benadering om buitestanders te omhels, word gemaak.http://ojs.tgwsak.co.za/index.php/TGW/abouthj2023New Testament StudiesNon

Cultural Influences in the Processing of Emotion Schemas Related to Death and Violence: A Pilot Study

Culture is a key element in determining emotions that people experience when facing death. Recent studies revealed a specific emotion schema for the affective response to death (in comparison with unpleasant/violence-related stimulus), influenced by differences in the personalities and learning processes of the individuals, on the one hand, and differences in the cultural and social contexts of the two groups, on the other. The objective of the research was to compare the English participants’ affective response to pictures of death to those of the Spanish participants, who viewed other types of affective pictures (pleasant, unpleasant/violence-related and neutral). A total of 38 young adults took part in an emotional assessment using a set of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) database. They indicated the values of valence, arousal and dominance for each affective image. The results show that the images related to death were less unpleasant and caused a lower activation in the English population, while there were no differences in the two group’s responses to unpleasant/violent images

Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis of Malaria Infection Intensity and Mild Disease

Although balancing selection with the sickle-cell trait and other red blood cell disorders has emphasized the interaction between malaria and human genetics, no systematic approach has so far been undertaken towards a comprehensive search for human genome variants influencing malaria. By screening 2,551 families in rural Ghana, West Africa, 108 nuclear families were identified who were exposed to hyperendemic malaria transmission and were homozygous wild-type for the established malaria resistance factors of hemoglobin (Hb)S, HbC, alpha(+) thalassemia, and glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase deficiency. Of these families, 392 siblings aged 0.5–11 y were characterized for malaria susceptibility by closely monitoring parasite counts, malaria fever episodes, and anemia over 8 mo. An autosome-wide linkage analysis based on 10,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms was conducted in 68 selected families including 241 siblings forming 330 sib pairs. Several regions were identified which showed evidence for linkage to the parasitological and clinical phenotypes studied, among them a prominent signal on Chromosome 10p15 obtained with malaria fever episodes (asymptotic z score = 4.37, empirical p-value = 4.0 × 10(−5), locus-specific heritability of 37.7%; 95% confidence interval, 15.7%–59.7%). The identification of genetic variants underlying the linkage signals may reveal as yet unrecognized pathways influencing human resistance to malaria

New interactions in neutrino oscillations with three light flavors

If one assumes solar and LSND neutrino oscillations to explain the corresponding data, then the atmospheric neutrino deficit cannot be accommodated within the Standard Model with three light flavors, unless one ignores the data's zenith-angle dependence. We propose a novel solution to this problem by postulating large anomalous diagonal $\nu_\tau$-quark interactions which affect $\nu_\mu - \nu_\tau$ oscillations traversing the Earth and induce the observed zenith-angle dependence.Comment: Final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letters dated May 25, 199

Possible Revelation of Seesaw Mass Pattern in Solar and Atmospheric Neutrino Data

Assuming the solar and atmospheric neutrino deficits to be due to neutrino oscillations, it is shown that the 3X3 mass matrix spanning the e, mu, and tau neutrinos may have already revealed a seesaw mass pattern. Also, this matrix is the natural reduction of a simple 5X5 seesaw mass matrix with one large scale, the 4X4 reduction of which predicts that a fourth neutrino would mix with the e and mu neutrinos in such a way that oscillations between them may occur just within the detection capability of the LSND (Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector) experiment.Comment: 10 pages (4 figures not included

The pyramidalis-anterior pubic ligament-adductor longus complex (PLAC) and its role with adductor injuries: a new anatomical concept.

PURPOSE: Adductor longus injuries are complex. The conflict between views in the recent literature and various nineteenth-century anatomy books regarding symphyseal and perisymphyseal anatomy can lead to difficulties in MRI interpretation and treatment decisions. The aim of the study is to systematically investigate the pyramidalis muscle and its anatomical connections with adductor longus and rectus abdominis, to elucidate injury patterns occurring with adductor avulsions. METHODS: A layered dissection of the soft tissues of the anterior symphyseal area was performed on seven fresh-frozen male cadavers. The dimensions of the pyramidalis muscle were measured and anatomical connections with adductor longus, rectus abdominis and aponeuroses examined. RESULTS: The pyramidalis is the only abdominal muscle anterior to the pubic bone and was found bilaterally in all specimens. It arises from the pubic crest and anterior pubic ligament and attaches to the linea alba on the medial border. The proximal adductor longus attaches to the pubic crest and anterior pubic ligament. The anterior pubic ligament is also a fascial anchor point connecting the lower anterior abdominal aponeurosis and fascia lata. The rectus abdominis, however, is not attached to the adductor longus; its lateral tendon attaches to the cranial border of the pubis; and its slender internal tendon attaches inferiorly to the symphysis with fascia lata and gracilis. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates a strong direct connection between the pyramidalis muscle and adductor longus tendon via the anterior pubic ligament, and it introduces the new anatomical concept of the pyramidalis-anterior pubic ligament-adductor longus complex (PLAC). Knowledge of these anatomical relationships should be employed to aid in image interpretation and treatment planning with proximal adductor avulsions. In particular, MRI imaging should be employed for all proximal adductor longus avulsions to assess the integrity of the PLAC

Generic consequences of a supersymmetric U(1) gauge factor at the TeV scale

We consider an arbitrary supersymmetric U(1) gauge factor at the TeV scale, under which the two Higgs superfields H_{1,2} of the standard model are nontrivial. We assume that there is a singlet superfield S such that H_1 H_2 S is an allowed term in the superpotential. We discuss first the generic consequences of this hypothesis on the structure of the two-doublet Higgs sector at the electroweak energy scale, as well as Z-Z' mixing and the neutralino sector. We then assume the existence of a grand unified symmetry and universal soft supersymmetry breaking terms at that scale. We further assume that the additional U(1) is broken radiatively via a superpotential term of the form h h^c S, where h and h^c are exotic color-triplet fields which appear in E_6 models. We show that the U(1) breaking scale and the parameter tan(beta) \equiv v_2/v_1 are then both predicted as functions of the H_1 H_2 S coupling.Comment: 33 pages including 9 figures; correction in discussion of Ref. [19] (formerly [18]); a few new comments in discussion and 2 references adde