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Death
When I talk about death in this book I mean the entire range of phenomena
with which death is associated. This includes, often above all,
the human awareness of death while we are alive. Why ask “What
is death? Unless the answer is going to affect how we live? To
think this way puts us in a league with the most profound minds of history,
who saw how focusing upon death could propel them into more self-awareness.
For example, I have come to think of my problems somewhat as Montaigne,
the sixteenth-century French philosopher of daily life, wrote about his
urinary tract stones. His painful bouts came and went. Yet
he claimed he was glad to be shaking hands with death once a month or
so because it was good for a man of his age (about the same as mine)
to be brought home to meditations on mortality.
Tyler Volk
What is Death? A Scientist Looks at the Cycle of Life (page
17)