INTRODUCTION

TO
PHILOSOPHY
OF THE
HUMAN
PERSON
HUMAN
PERSON
TOWARDS
IMPENDING
DEATH
 HUMAN
PERSON AS
ORIENTED
TOWARDS
IMPENDING
DEATH:

PHENOMENOLOGY OF DEATH
 DEATH
What is your initial reaction when you hear the
word death? Is death really a terrifying
phenomenon? If death is a dreadful thing, what
makes it fearsome?
On the other hand, death, as part of human reality, may have meaningful
messages. At this junction, we will try to uncover the mystery of death by
rationalizing its phenomenon so that we get to understand it better, accept it as
part of human nature, and treat it as a condition that allows us to create a
meaningful existence.
BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH

Man comes face to face with the nothingness of his existence in the reality of
death. What is the meaning of this? The basic idea is that death as a human reality
comes to our awareness first in terms of the death of other people. It is first seen as
something that is objective. It is a reality that tells us that ‘I am not going to die’, and so
it makes us feel so confident about life.
The above phenomenon is a result of our being immersed in a crowd. In man’s
everyday life, in our routines, the reality of death does not happen as an obvious event.
Outside, there exists a crowd, a crowd that tempts every person towards an
inauthentic mode of existence. Our being dissolved in the crowd means our being
immersed in the “they-self” or the uncaring self that knows nothing except the
superficiality of things.
BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH

The kind of inauthentic life offered by the crowd is that of a life lived in
terms of its momentary or lousy states. It is not a life lived in a holistic way. An
inauthentic life is nothing but linear. It is purposeless. It is lived in the
everydayness of existence without a sense of what makes it whole or truly
meaningful. So, death as a real possibility is simply pushed away.
Martin Heidegger writes that by being-in-the-world, the human being,
however, realizes that he is a ‘not yet’. The person, in living a life, is still to realize
his fullest potential as a human being. For Heidegger, in death the person faces
the ultimate test. “It is”, according to Manuel Dy, Jr., “the fruition of man’s being
in the world.”
 BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH

Heidegger opines that as long as the person is, he is a “not-yet.” The human being is not yet
complete. The person as a being is not yet whole. Hence, the human person still and continually realizes
what it means to be in the world in terms of one’s possibilities. To be in the world therefore means to be an
unfinished project. Being an unfinished task, the person is a process that culminates toward an
end. This means that the person, being ahead-of-himself, projects his reality in the world. The human
person, by being-in-the-world, is at the same time a being who is dwelling in the not-yet of one’s existence.
The “not-yet” is the nothingness in human existence. The nothing here, however, is not the nothing
of non-being. This nothingness in us refers to our “own-most” possibilities. What becomes of persons is
grounded in the nothing. The world serves as the horizon of our being, for it is in the world where we
fulfill our possibilities for being. Think of a man, for instance, like a seed with a potential of becoming a big
plant. Like a seed, man is pregnant with potentials. The seed is not yet a plant, but it contains the being,
the coming forth of the plant.
BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH

 As long as the person is, Heidegger says that he is not yet finished. Thus,
there is nothing final in man as long as one is. Our finality, our completion,
only comes to us in death, where we would no longer be. Death, if seen
from the context of a whole, is the fulfillment of the being of man. It is a
condition where the human is no longer possible, and as such, he no
longer stands up in the light of being. In death, the human being loses his
power to be, and as such, he no longer is. Death in this regard is the
impossibility of man. In death, man no longer possesses his potentiality for
being. Indeed, he comes to grip into the impossibility of his existence, of
losing the reality of his being-in-the-world.
BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH

Death as a possibility for man is revealed in anxiety. Death is man’s own-most

possibility that individualizes him. It is a possibility that is his and his alone, a thing that
cannot be taken over by another. Thus, in dying, what is at issue is man himself, for man alone
stands, dreads, and confronts the reality of his being. The person alone confronts the reality
of life as a being-towards-an-end.
Man is anxious about the reality of death not because he fears what will happen in
the after-life but because he dreads his being-in-the-world. What he dreads, what he is
anxious about, are the possibilities that will be lost forever. For instance, his being-with-
others – the people he values, his family, his many missions or simply the career he will
leave behind. But above all, Roger Troisfontaines rightly says that the greatest fear of mortals
with which death shadows them is the fear of being separated from ones we love.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: IMAGINE THE SCENARIO BELOW.
ANSWER THE QUESTIONS USING 3-5 SENTENCES ONLY.
INTERPRETATING THE STORY: DISCUSS THE SYMBOLISMS IN THE SHORT
STORY AND STORY’S POSSIBLE MEANING.

From Leo Tolstoy’s A Confession and Other Religious Writings

There is an old Eastern fable about a traveler who is taken unawares on the steppes by
a ferocious animal. In order to escape the beast, the traveler hides in an empty well, but at
the bottom of the well, he sees a dragon with its jaws open, ready to devour him. The poor
fellow does not dare to climb out because he is afraid of being eaten by the ferocious beast,
and neither does he dare drop to the bottom of the well for fear of being eaten by the
dragon. So, he seizes hold of a branch of a bush that is growing in the crevices of the well
and clings on to it. His arms grow weak, and he knows that he will soon have to resign
himself to the death that awaits him on either side. Yet he clings on and while he is holding
on to the one branch, he looks around and sees that two mice, one black and one white are
steadily working on their way around the bush he is hanging from, gnawing away at it.
Sooner or later, they will eat through it and the branch will snap, and he will fall into the
jaws of the dragon. The traveler sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish. But
while he is still hanging there, he sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the bush,
stretches his tongue, and licks them.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL NOTION OF DEATH
Death is certain. As part of
humanness, we are all born (in
the Heideggerian sense, we are
“thrown”) into the world. The
world is governed by time. We,
humans, are existing in time,
thus, as being thrown into the
world, we have beginning and
since we are finite beings, we
also have end – death. Birth and
death are two things we cannot
remove from our existence.
Whether we like it or not, we
will die.
Death is indefinite. While
death is sure to come, it is
however indefinite as to
when it will come. Death is
impending, meaning to say, it
can happen anytime. We do
not know exactly when. That
is why we should try to live
the best life that we can for
we never know the day of our
end.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL NOTION OF DEATH

Death is not to be
outstripped. Death cannot
Death is non-relational.
be taken away from a
This means that when we
Death is one’s property. person. Even the person
die, we die alone. We have
The death of the person himself cannot remove the
no choice but to face it on
belongs to him. Nobody possibility of death in his
our own. Death also
can experience his death life. One cannot make
removes all our relations
except himself. There can himself live forever. Even
to others. In contemplating
be no proxies or though we see in fiction
death, we realize our own
substitutes for a person in movies the idea of
individuality and
experiencing death. immortality, and death, in
independence from the
real life is a definite reality
world.
in which nothing can be
done to be outstripped.
We often come across people who believe that
there is no point in life. Their focus mainly
remains on the pain and suffering one has to
endure in their lifetime and its sheer
redundancy. Some of them would go on to
curse ‘God’ for playing games or creating
‘puppets’ for ‘his’ entertainment. Such ideas
may appeal to relatively immature audiences.
This kind of viewpoint is easily acceptable as
it resonates with the frustrations and struggles
of everyday existence thus establishing the
notion of the futility of life. In my case,
however, I oppose the idea that life is a point
between womb and tomb! I believe that life is
a beautiful gift for the soul in order to evolve
in its spiritual journey. It is a beautiful way for
the soul to grow into a blooming higher power
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF DEATH?
Death has always been a major concern of humanity since the
beginning of history and finding the secret of immortality and
escaping death has become the subject of many myths and
ancient stories. Among philosophers who have addressed the
subject of death, Heidegger addressed not only immortality and
life after death but also the nature of death during one's
existence. In his view, man (whom he named Existence) through
death becomes aware of his finitude, and thus, Heidegger
chooses human beings as the only way of understanding
existence among creatures. It is an event that represents the
permanent cessation of all biological functions that sustain a
living organism-the end of life. For Martin Heidegger “One cannot
fully live unless one confronts one’s own mortality” Therefore the
awareness and acceptance of death is a requirement for
authentic existence. “Being and Time” As soon as man comes to
life he is at once old enough to die. He believes not in cowardly
fear but courageous anxiety as a proper mood towards death for
us to have as impassioned freedom towards it.
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF DEATH? (CONTINUATION FROM PREVIOUSLY SLIDE)

 He supposes that we have healthy anxiety about death that provides courageous awareness of one’s finitude.
 Death as an interruption to the like sheep or diseases, only permanent.
 Death ought to be considered the culminating act of life.
 Death is to be considered part of life.
 Death is to be transitioned from this life to the life that really counts, eternal life.
 Death is a phase, eternal life starts here and now, and the kingdom of God is already among us.
 Death is to be considered as a transition from this life eventually to another life of much the same kind, better or
worse according to one’s deeds.
DEATH AND AUTHENTICITY
What does death really mean? Is it just a reminder that human existence has a limitation?
We may accept the reality of death as it is, but it also reminds us that we have to value life while
we have it.
Since we cannot control it, things that remain within our control are those which belong to
life. While still alive, we have choices to take. The question now is not focused on death but on
how we live in the world. Let us ask ourselves before we die. Did we ever truly live?
Authenticity is an idea mostly used in existentialism which means having a true and
meaningful existence. According to Soren Kierkegaard, we have to avoid the crowd – the majority
of society which we think should be the pattern of our lives. For example, we see people
marrying, therefore, we also have to marry. But authenticity is not like that. We have to freely
choose to marry. The intention to marry should not come from the crowd as we usually hear but
it should come from our deliberate choice.
Another reason why we fail to lead an authentic life is fear. Just because we are afraid of the
possible consequences and what others might say, we fail to pursue what we truly want in life.
This challenge of authenticity is one of the important messages of death. As we accept death, we
realize the value of having a true life – an authentic life!
POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH
-In Heidegger's view, integrity is one of the most important issues. In his work,
the “inner philosophy of what integrity is to be started”, thinking about death
can be one of the efforts that allow Existence to achieve integrity.
- “The finiteness of existence is obtained from a plurality of endless facilities
such as the possibility of satisfaction, negligence and evasion, which, as the
nearest facilities are available, take and easily trace him to the ground as a result
of fate.” (Heidegger, 2014, p. 384).
- “Existence opens itself to the constant threat from the “there”. In the end, one
must consider this threat to be permanent but not because it should not be able
to dim the indeterminacy. While the absolute threat can arise from themselves,
Existence must open himself to keep the anxiety. The anxiety that Existence
experiences in the face of “nothing” is the impossibility of its existence, and the
possibility of anxiety toward death is natural” (Heidegger, 2014, p. 341).
POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH

- “Death is a self-possibility of Existence; if one is able to Exist, he can absolutely own it.
In it can be revealed to an Existence the possibility of its most prized discrete people
remaining, which can already outrun and always separate themselves from the people.
- In the analysis of the phrase “dead man”, a way without ambiguity is daily exposed to
death. Death in such speech as something indefinite is understood and sooner or later
must come from somewhere but for the time being remains hegemonic and not very
threatening. This is because no one exists. Therefore, understanding the end shows that
death is not understood in this way, and the veil falls away while Heidegger reaches the
power of being through death.
THANK
YOU 