Scribd
Upload
72 views

Reflection

This document discusses Martin Heidegger's views on death and being. It summarizes that for Heidegger, death is not something that happens but something impending that is part of one's existence. He argues we should not define death based on life after it, as no one has experienced death and lived to tell about it. Heidegger sees death as man's transition between existence and non-existence, and claims the anticipation of death's possibility should motivate us to actualize our lives and give them purpose rather than evade death. The document also notes Heidegger was interested in the question of being and criticized Western philosophy as nihilistic for obscuring this question.

Uploaded by

Alexandra Estanislao
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
72 views

Reflection

This document discusses Martin Heidegger's views on death and being. It summarizes that for Heidegger, death is not something that happens but something impending that is part of one's existence. He argues we should not define death based on life after it, as no one has experienced death and lived to tell about it. Heidegger sees death as man's transition between existence and non-existence, and claims the anticipation of death's possibility should motivate us to actualize our lives and give them purpose rather than evade death. The document also notes Heidegger was interested in the question of being and criticized Western philosophy as nihilistic for obscuring this question.

Uploaded by

Alexandra Estanislao
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Djaen Mark G.

Corpuz
BSCE 4-4
Philo120
Reflection paper on Heidegger

Martin Heidegger is widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and

important philosophers of the 20th century, while remaining one of the most

controversial. Martin Heidegger is widely acknowledged to be one of the most original

and important philosophers of the 20th century, while remaining one of the most

controversial.

Heidegger’s main interest was ontology or the study of being. In his fundamental

treatise, Being and Time, he attempted to access being (Sein) by means of

phenomenological analysis of human existence (Dasein) in respect to its temporal and

historical character. After the change of his thinking (“the turn”), Heidegger placed an

emphasis on language as the vehicle through which the question of being can be

unfolded. Every day, in the television news, social media, and even in our schools,

workplace, or closer kin, we see or hear cases of death. We tend to be indifferent

towards it, not counting it as a prospective circumstance; until such time that it comes

closer to us, to our family, or to our friends at least. We now count the possibility of them

not succumbing to death. We are therefore giving them a sense of false consciousness

of security, of well-being, of life. This is the inevitable nature of humans towards death.

Even a glimpse of death near-death experiences seems ambiguous for most people.

Martin Heidegger offers a vivid description of death in its utmost philosophical sense

which clears up the misconceptions mentioned above.

Heidegger argues that death should not be defined on the basis of the life after it,

if there is. As Dy says in the article, “No one has ever come out alive from death to tell

us about death.” . Even though it is not happening in every one all at the same time, we
Djaen Mark G. Corpuz
BSCE 4-4
Philo120
will all experience it one day. As much as we are born unequally, we will all die equally,

with our bodies returning to the earth we once came to be created, as what the Bible

says about this matter.

Death, for Heidegger, is man’s transition between his existence and non-

existence. Such transition, according to him, cannot be experienced. Heidegger claims

that death is not something that happens but something impending. It is part of one’s

existence. It is part of man’s nature.

Immortality is impossible. Death will never fail to perform its job in every living

thing. In every man, death awaits. As Heidegger says, death makes the man complete.

In dying, man is proven to be man a mortal who existed. Death is not the enemy of man.

It is his destiny; his fulfillment; his wholeness. Once the man exists at birth, he

immediately starts his journey to death. Heidegger’s phenomenology of death is about

man as a being-towards-death.

I agree to what Heidegger recommends as an authentic attitude towards death. Man

must not evade the possibility of death, as most people do. Nor must a man actualize

his own death or calculate it. But, as I have understood it, man must anticipate that

death will come to him at any given moment. This anticipation, therefore, leads to a

surge of will to actualize one’s life, not death, and mobilize it to existence. This life

mobilization from his life visions, missions, and aims will lead him to a purpose – the

very reason of the existence of man. Grasping the possibility of death motivates man to

always make the right move as much as possibleInstead of looking for a full clarification

of the meaning of being, he tried to pursue a kind of thinking which was no longer

“metaphysical.” He criticized the tradition of Western philosophy, which he regarded as


Djaen Mark G. Corpuz
BSCE 4-4
Philo120
nihilistic, for, as he claimed, the question of being as such was obliterated in it. He also

stressed the nihilism of modern technological culture. By going to the Presocratic

beginning of Western thought, he wanted to repeat the early Greek experience of being,

so that the West could turn away from the dead end of nihilism and begin anew. His

writings are notoriously difficult. Being and Time remains his most influential work.

You might also like