Leven en dood in de Westerse geïndustrialiseerde maatschappij
Abstract
Life and death in Western industrial society — In their study « Death in American Society», the authors, Talcott Parsons and Victor Lidz, stress that modern American society has differentiated the death complex into the components which are inevitably grounded in the human condition and those which are « advent tious». In the present article the author claims that the basic patterns of orientation (values and behaviour) towards life and death have profound cultural roots. Efforts to minimize the adventitious components of death and to delay death to the end of a normal lifecycle have become highly valued in Western industrial society in general. This rational attitude toward death is a feature of the more general cultural pattern of Western societies in which protection of life has been emphasized. Protection of life also means increase of quality of life. The development of this aspect of life was rather slow. The many attempts to narrow the cultural lag between material conditions of human life and quality of life are characteristic of our time.
How to Cite:
Versichelen, M., (1980) “Leven en dood in de Westerse geïndustrialiseerde maatschappij”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 25(4), 333–347. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94773
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