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9 - How Should We Live So as to Die Well?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

Clifford Williams
Clifford Williams
Affiliation:
Trinity International University, Illinois
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Summary

In chapter 9 I use Ivan Ilyich’s life, as told by Leo Tolstoy in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, to answer the question of the chapter, how should we live so as to die well? One answer is to be open to knowing our inner lives, to what is good, and to God. Another is to develop character traits opposite to those of Ivan Ilyich, which were delight in the power to crush his inferiors, pleasure in trivialities, and excessive self-regard. The chapter also describes the moral agony that Ivan Ilyich experienced as a result of his dying, his resistance to examining his life, and the openness he needed to have to be aware of his inner life. The chapter ends with a conversation between an imagined, transformed Ivan as he lay dying and a friend of his.

Keywords

Leo TolstoyThe Death of Ivan IlyichDeathDyingHow to Face DeathHow to Live WellThe Psychology of DyingResistance to What Is GoodMoral Agony
Type
Chapter
Information
Religion and the Meaning of Life
An Existential Approach
 , pp. 153 - 173
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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