Alive
The word, “Alive”, matters to me personally, because I consider myself alive, both physically (in the broadest sense of the term) and mentally (conscious of my surroundings, statuses, internal and external conditions, ect.). It is a term with multiple connotations and denotations possible, with potentially all of them correct depending on the circumstances and perspectives they are viewed from. My definition of the word, “Alive”, is existing in a state of consciousness as to be able to perceive the world around you, potentially interpret it, and possibly interact with it in variously defined ways. It is different than being “dead”, as the "dead" cannot perceive the world, interact with it, or interpret it in any meaningful or noticeable ways. A prime example of being “alive” is me, as one should hope that the entity describing the conditions necessary to be “alive” is alive itself. I am able to perceive the world around me (insofar as I know that the world I perceive is actually the world as it is), so that fills condition #1. Condition #2 is met by my ability to interpret the world and its conditions by demonstration of my creating meanings of things, analyzing them, and comparing and contrasting the world. I am able to fill condition #3 of being “alive” by even writing this paper, which requires many interactions for me to write this (turning on the computer, pressing the keys on the keyboard so that it types this paragraph).
This can be considered a controversial term because of what is determined to be “alive”, as the conditions for being “alive” are left intentionally ill-defined to account for multiple types of organisms to be “alive”. The main example I’m thinking of is the Terri Schiavo case. Many people argued that she was no longer “alive” because her own body was no longer able to support her, and she was no longer aware of any of her surroundings. However, others argued that since her body was still performing many of the basic human homeostatic functions, she was still “alive”, and should be allowed to continue on life support until she dies of her own body’s failings.
For this concept, I am tempted to bring in philosophical arguments about existence, and being “alive”, as there are many options here. However, I will also make sure to bring in reports from periodicals, medical journals, and psychological journals to try to bring a more concrete, scientific stance to the argument.
8 comments:
this is going to be a good paper
Do you need to have a pulse? brain activity (even just tiny transmissions of electicity). . . Is a fetus alive? If you're going to tackle this you should be prepared to tackle the really controverial stuff.
This is a great word but another definition of alive that you could look at would be something along the lines of how well you can function because would you really consider someone who is breathing with a machine being feed from a tube and things like that alive, yes they are living and breathing but what kind of life is that if they cannot enjoy things and never have the chance of living
This is a great topic. I think the philosophical route is a good one.. Does conscious thought determine life? And if it does, are other living animals, insects, plants alive? Best of luck!
Wow! A very complex word. It is also very easy to stray off topic cause its so broad. Good luck using this word.
Very, very good choice! This word can mean several different things and just find those aspects and describe them in detail and it will be great!
I think this is a great word to analyze - I sometimes question what exactly makes me living and this paper could be very useful to see your opinion. Try interviewing people, I think there is going to be a lot of different views.
Good luck Blake =]
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