Existentialism: Heidegger on Dasein and Death
Nicole Czerwinski
Death is intimately woven into our lives. We are dying from the moment we are born, which Heidegger (1962) sums up as: “Death is a way to be which Dasein takes over as soon as it is”.
You tell me:
In regard to death and dying, is this or is this not "a general description intellectual contraption"?
Yes, we can all read these words. And we all have a general understanding of what they mean. Aside from Dasein, most don't have to got to a dictionary and look the words up. And, even in regard to Dasein, there might well be a general consensus regarding how Heidegger links the word to death philosophically.
On the other end, what do those words mean to you in regard to your actual existential death? And, if they mean something very different to me, how would we go about, using the tools of philosophy, in arriving at the most rational understanding of them?
The lifelong deliberation of our mortality enriches our existence rather than pulling us into a spiral of morbid despair.
Same thing. What happens when any particular individual's lifelong deliberation on their own mortality results in their behaving in such a manner that it actually puts in jeopardy life itself for others. As, for example, in regard to religious conflicts or clashes between political ideologies.
At times, such deliberations can indeed enrich our lives. But, at other times, bring us little but despair. That's all rooted existentially in my own rendition of dasein.
Then back up into the philosophical clouds...
Though the ontological mode of existence doesn’t seem to be a state that we can will ourselves into indefinitely, there will be moments when our receptiveness to these experiences, and willingness to tolerate the existential anxiety and guilt, can guide us into phases of authentic being.
Given any particular context, your rendition of an authentic life or mine? Ours or theirs? Being authentic philosophically or existentially?
Befriending our finitude therefore becomes the challenge, allowing death to remind us that existence cannot be postponed. The message is simple, and Irvin Yalom sums it up nicely in his personal mantra:
“Although the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death saves us.”
Of course, for many who are unable to believe in God, that brings them to another quandary:
They know they have but one life to live. So, yes, by all means live it to the fullest. But for any number of individuals that revolves around behaviors that actually risk death itself. Racecar drivers, mercenaries, thrill seekers, daredevils.
The
idea of death then? Or, instead, is it something considerably more problematic...more in sync with my own understanding of dasein.
https://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176529