Summary
Highlights
The video opens by posing a hypothetical question about one's actions if facing imminent death, highlighting how our understanding of death influences life's structure. It introduces Martin Heidegger, a 20th-century German philosopher, and his magnum opus, "Being and Time." The focus will be on his concept of "being towards death" from Division Two of the book, excluding his political associations.
Heidegger's central concern is the meaning of 'Being' (capitalized), distinguishing it from individual 'beings.' He employs a phenomenological approach, focusing on 'Dasein' (being-there), which is not a biological human but the distinctive entity we are. Dasein's state of being is 'care,' defined as 'ahead of itself,' 'being already in the world,' and 'being alongside entities.' These three temporal descriptions—thrownness, fallenness, and projection—characterize Dasein's existence.
Heidegger seeks to understand Dasein's wholeness, but Dasein is always 'ahead of itself,' projecting possibilities, and thus never complete until its end. However, once Dasein reaches its end (death), it no longer 'is.' This presents a problem for phenomenological discovery. He rejects finding wholeness in the death of others, arguing that we only experience their loss, not their death itself. He also refutes the idea of experiencing death representatively, stating that death is "in every case mine."
Heidegger clarifies that death is not an empirical event but an existential phenomenon. He distinguishes Dasein's death from the 'ripening' of fruit (which is fulfillment) and the 'endings' of inert objects. Death for Dasein is an 'unfulfilling' end. He also differentiates 'perishing' (for living things) and 'demise' (non-biological endings) from his ontological concept of death. Dying is defined as Dasein's way of being towards its death, which is an inevitable possibility.
Heidegger integrates death into the concept of 'care.' Death is distinctively 'impending,' a possibility of the absolute impossibility of Dasein. It is 'one's own most,' 'non-relational,' and 'not to be outstripped.' He argues that authentic being towards death involves facing these characteristics: thrownness (death as a target), an experience of anxiety, and avoiding 'falling' into an unauthentic understanding of death offered by 'the they.'
Average everydayness demonstrates an inauthentic being towards death. 'The they' views death as distant, impersonal, and to be escaped, transforming anxiety into a 'loathed cowardly fear.' This 'falling' or 'fleeing' from death is characterized by idle talk, treating death as an empirical phenomenon, and an inauthentic projection of merely 'waiting' for death. While 'the they' acknowledges death's certainty, they simultaneously negate its immediate threat, leading to a contradiction. Death's certainty is linked to the indefiniteness of its 'when.'
Jean-Paul Sartre criticizes Heidegger's 'interiorization' of death, arguing that death is not 'mine' and not a 'possibility.' For Sartre, death is an 'annihilation of possibilities' that is outside of one's control and hands one's existence over to the perceptions of others. The video suggests a Heideggerian response would highlight Sartre's misunderstanding, confusing Heidegger's existential death with 'demise' (an event) rather than a 'way of being.'
Authentic being towards death involves disclosing death's true nature and facing it with anxiety, not fleeing from it. It's not about actualizing death (like suicide), dwelling on it, or merely expecting it. Instead, authentic being towards death is 'running ahead' or 'anticipation,' facing it as a possibility with its five-fold characteristics (one's own most, non-relational, not to be outstripped, certain, and indefinite when). This wrenches Dasein from 'the they,' individualizes it, lights up all other possibilities, reveals a primordial reality, and emphasizes the constant threat of the end. The resulting state is anxiety, and only through this anxiety can Dasein achieve self-understanding as mortal, living a life that is truly its own.
Heidegger's discussion concludes that anticipation reveals Dasein's lostness in 'the they' and brings it face-to-face with an 'impassioned freedom towards death.' The video revisits the opening question, noting that knowing a specific death date offers comfort and allows planning, which is unlike reality. Heidegger would argue that this question avoids the crucial indefiniteness of death's 'when.' A better question, for Heidegger, would be: 'What would you do if, instead of hiding in fear and shying away from it, you embraced the anxiety of your own mortality and lived running ahead towards death?'