Manuscrito. Favor no citar Actitudes culturales ante la enfermedad y la muerte. Perspectivas desde la pandemia global Cultural attitudes towards illness and death. Perspectives from the global pandemic Julián Bohórquez-Carvajal Pontificia Universidad Javeriana bohorquez.julian@javeriana.edu.co ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2371-4535 Esta versión del texto corresponde a un manuscrito. La versión final fue publicada en la Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia. Favor citar esa versión: Bohórquez-Carvajal, Julián. “Actitudes culturales ante la enfermedad y la muerte. Perspectivas desde la pandemia global”. Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 2021, Vol. 77 (2-3): 793-818. DOI https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2021_77_2_0793. Abstract In the context of COVID-19 pandemic, this paper reflects on the effects of great epidemics on our cultural attitudes towards illness and death. First, through a parallel between the coronavirus pandemic and the medieval Black Death, I examine the impact of epidemics on our ways of thinking about reality and of responding collectively to the fear of dying. Based on the historical periodization of the different mentalities towards death, formulated by Philippe Ariès, I argue that epidemic phenomena modify the way in which the different cultures conceive and deal with finitude, and how this fact manifests itself in the contemporary society, characterized by the denial of death. I conclude that current pandemic can lead us to a thoughtful reappropriation of our mortality. Second, based on the reflections of American writer Susan Sontag, I analyze the negative impact of military metaphors associated with contagious diseases, and how these metaphors promote our fears and irrational attitudes in the face of crisis. Finally, I show that the emergence of new pathologies, such as coronavirus disease, is generating a conceptual change in