A Survey on the Meaning of Thinking to Death in Heidegger’s Philosophy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Jamal Same 1
Mohamad Javad Safian 2
1 M.A. Student, Isfahan University
2 Assistant Professor, Isfahan University
Abstract
The present study tries to consider the problem of death from the perspective of ready-to-hand ontology. By ready-to-hand ontology, we mean a kind of encounter with ready-to-hand beings (instrumental beings) and concrete horizons of life which has been expanded in Heidegger’s thought. This kind of ontology, which is the characteristic feature of Heidegger’s methodology in phenomenological ontology, puts the objects and horizons of human life in a practical and engaging context. One of the concrete horizons of ready-to-hand ontology is death. Because of death’s extraordinary importance in human life and its effect on the worldview of mankind, it deserves a thorough analysis. In order to correctly approach the problem of death in Heidegger’s philosophy, and in order to emphasize the difference between thinking to death in Heidegger’s thought and the traditional metaphysics, we consider death in ready-to-hand and present-at-hand ontologies. Ready-to-hand ontology has been the prevailing mode of thinking to death in the traditional metaphysics from Plato to Nietzsche. We consider thinking to death in this kind of ontology in the three phases of Heidegger’s thought. This paper examines new possibilities and the horizons that ready-to-hand ontology can introduce.

Keywords

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Philosophical Meditations
Volume 6, Issue 17 - Serial Number 17
September 2016
Pages 155-186