死亡教育的存在意義與內容：人對死亡的思考

死亡成為人思考的問題同人本身一樣久遠。根據研究，人在四、五歳就對死亡產生好奇及疑問；從社會發展來看，人從幾百萬年前，就開始認真思考有關死亡的問題；而人把死亡當作哲學問題來思考，也幾乎和哲學本身同時開始。究竟人類對死亡的關心及思考是如何？而死亡教育的存在與內容要如何據此回應？本文依據以上的研究動機，將探討：一、人對死亡的思考與態度；二、死亡教育存在的意義；三、死亡教育內容之掌握與問題。儘管部份實證研究對於死亡教育的效果持保留態度，但本文研究結論得出，死亡教育的存置有助個人正視死亡帶來的焦慮恐懼及代表社會支持個人行動，並且既然教育目標包括追求個人生命的完滿展現，死亡既是生命的結局，也應該被認真的討論。對死亡的討論乍看是一個面對個人身體逐漸衰弱腐敗的負面的討論，但如深一層地探究，死亡的討論可以是對於個人精神成長並深化人生積極正面看法的討論。依此，本文提出死亡教育的內容不僅應回歸死亡自身，並應生死兩面併同觀照，進而教導生命意義的掌握。

關鍵字

死亡；死亡教育；生死；生命；生命意義

並列摘要

This paper aims to base the values and contents of death education on how we human beings have considered and treat 'death'. Though some researches hold a conservative perspective towards the effectiveness of death education, this paper concluded that the offering of death education helps individuals face the anxiety and fear produced by the inevitable 'death', and represent the support which individuals need from society as a whole. Given that the goals of education include the fulfillment of individual life, death as the ultimate end of one's life should be considered and discussed seriously. The discussion of death, which seems to be a negative issue, can be transformed into a positive and useful issue in connections with the construction of the meaningfulness of one's life. The contents of death education not only should include discussions 'of' death as well as 'about' death, but also balance discussions between 'life' and 'death'. The construction of the meaningfulness of one's life is the ultimate goal of death education.