Virtual Death and Human Self-Understanding

Abstract

Modernity up to the late 20th century generally suppressed or denied death, it is often observed; death has become a modern taboo. However, the paper argues that we are moving beyond this denial of death. Death in some particular guises (“Virtual Death”) has found its way back into public discourse and popular culture. This paper explores possible reasons; both the previous denial as much as the current return in a different form can be explained on the basis of death’s role in the formation of notions of the self. While pre-modern humans could accept their contingency and thus mortality, modern self-understanding as a maker is at odds with death as with any ineluctable limit set to its creative power. That explains also, why we can accept Virtual Death more easily; this “death” is man’s own creation and no longer a limit to human mastership of this world. At least it appears to be.