About “After Life”: A philosophical reflection on the notion of the moral experience of mourning

Abstract

There are diverse philosophical conceptions about the conformation of human morality, regarding the place that experience and theoretical knowledge have in it. Modern moral philosophy, unlike the old one, has tended to shift the focus of morality towards conceptions detached from subjective experience. Undoubtedly, this generates multiple philosophical problems, some of which will be explored in this work. In it, with regard to the After Life series, topics such as the anchoring of morality in the experience are emphasized, especially the experience of the duel that its central character goes through. It is not suggested that mourning will be the key experience in shaping morality, but with regard to its analysis we can understand new ways of inserting morality into its emotional and relational bases, as well as the tensions between moral knowledge (theory) and morality practices, considering the epistemic, anthropological and ethical implications involved. The modern notion of moral subjectivity is considered problematic
here. Faced with a subject detached from otherness, mourning allows, as can be seen in the filmic narrative, to understand the transition from a situation of moral deficit (self-centeredness, detachment from needs and bond with the other, etc.) to one of full morality. In the interpretive path, the phenomenological vision of the presence of face of the other in the conformation of morality is appealed, as well as the consideration that the good must have in the construction of it.