Abstract

LEIS, Héctor Ricardo. The society of the living. Sociologias [online]. 2003, n.9, pp. 340-353. ISSN 1517-4522.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-45222003000100012.

The question: which is the meaning of the experience of death in contemporary society? The hypothesis: there is a somber and degrading facet in human condition, associated to institutional privatization, or "pacification" of death we see in our times. Several contemporary social theoreticians rely on strategies such as reflexivity in order to reconstruct human fragmentation. However, such reconstruction can hardly take place without seeking support in key aspects of the human condition. This works attempts to point at some of the deficits of contemporary social theory and underscore some of the ways to overcome contemporary society's dilemmas.

Keywords : social theory; modernity; death.