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Article: Definitions of Death
- Article from:
- Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying
- Author:
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Definitions of Death
In the past, death has often been defined with a few confident words. For example, the first edition of
Encyclopaedia Britannica
informed its readership that "DEATH is generally considered as the separation of the soul and body; in which sense it stands opposed to life, which consists in the union thereof" (1768, v. 2, p. 309). The confidence and concision had dissolved by the time the fifteenth edition appeared in 1973. The entry on death had expanded to more than thirty times the original length. The earlier definition was not mentioned, and the alternative that death is simply the absence of life was dismissed as an empty negative. Readers seeking a clear and ...