A philosophical investigation into the meaning of death

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the meaning of death from a personal point of view. The question is asked: What does my death mean to me? What is the philosophical significance of my death? To answer these questions involves recognition of how the meaning of death relates to me as a person. This thesis will attempt to explore one's personal 'concern with death' by taking the influential philosophical work, BEING AND TIME, by Martin Heidegger and seeing how the meaning of death is considered. The thesis concludes that if death did not loom ahead of us, there would be no need to plan or take account of our possibilities. There would be no necessity for us to decide one way or another, or choose one possibility rather than another. A concern about death enables us to confront death and consequently transcend it by finding a meaning to our lives. This meaning is attempting to lead an authentic existence. Heidegger has shown that we are not only slaves: by the fact of our thrownness and also our ultimate 'not-yet', but also free in the sense that we have a 'power-to-be' - a freedom to choose certain possibilities. Death enhances this essential dichotomy of our lives.