I think Plato Was Ill: The Cinema and Philosophy in End-of-life Issues

• Main Author: Antonio Lastra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca 2008-10-01
• Series: Revista de Medicina y Cine / Journal of Medicine and Movies
• Online Access: https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/medicina_y_cine/article/view/238

<font face="Garamond" style="font-size: 11pt"> </font> <span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Garamond"> Marie de  Hennezel, who introduced palliative care into France, referred to the end-of-life as a strong time; the time of final exchanges, of the last words. The words of this essay could be summarised as a warning: the writer is profane in the field of palliative care, profane in medical issues, and profane in those of the cinema. However, he is by no means profane in philosophy since he holds a PhD in philosophy and teaches it. Someone profane is he or she who “fails to show due respect for things sacred”, or “a libertine or someone acutely interested in the things of this world” and, of course, he or she who “lacks authority and knowledge of an issue”; somebody “ignorant”. <em> Profanus</em>, in Latin, is synonymous with “sinister”. All these acceptances will appear one after the other, but faced with a lack of knowledge and authority, a philosopher has the right to speak up when asked to; the right to reply. Perhaps this virtue –responsibility- is a way of understanding the attitudes of humans towards the end of their lives. “Faced with” or “before” or “in front of” is the meaning of the Latin preposition <em>pro</em> in the word “pro-fane”. <em>Fanum</em> referred to the sacred place. And probably there is nothing more sacred and incomprehensible than death (incomprehensible, unexplainable), with the exception of life itself. Faced with life and death, we are all profane; we are all spectators. The inclusion of the cinema in this text is because the cinema has improved our condition as spectators; of beings standing in front of sacred things. Also in the term “professor”, the <em>pro</em> is significant. A literal translation would run in the sense that professors “promise”: they pro-ject what they say into the future. In simpler terms, they should be aware of the consequences of what they teach and anticipate the reactions. This is <em>profiteor philosophiam.</em></span><font face="Garamond" style="font-size: 11pt"><br /></font>