Death And Death: A Pessimistic View Of Death

The subject death brings about a pessimistic view of life. It would not be surprising that if someone extensively contemplates about death, he might feel that there is not much meaning in living in a sense that what we do during our lifetime will not matter that much since we are all destined to die anyway. However Heidegger argues otherwise. He feels that by contemplating on death, we will be able to truly live our lives authentically. In this paper, I shall expound what he means by this and compare it with Sartre’s version of how to live an authentic life. Lastly I will conclude with my own thoughts on both accounts of living authentically.

Heidegger sees death as a fate that allows us to become our authentic self. When we acknowledge that

“Being-toward-death is essentially Angst.” Anxiousness however is different from fear. When we fear, we fear a direct object, for example, a cockroach. In contrast, anxiousness arises through our realization of the indefinite or the nothingness in life. This anxiety in a way tends to make us feel less meaningful of our lives. It is this reason why we tend to avoid this anxiousness by distracting ourselves with mundane, everyday chores. “The they does not permit the courage to have Angst about death.” In this state of distracting ourselves, we are being inauthentic, not true to ourselves. Only when we fully embrace death and embrace anxiousness, will we be able to be authentic and notice all of our possibilities and act off of them. “Anticipation reveals to Da-sein its lostness in the they-self, and brings it face to face with the possibility to be itself, primarily unsupported by concern taking care of things, but to be itself in passionate anxious freedom

Sartre, similar to Heidegger, agrees that our own choices are what define us and us only. “Man is nothing else but what makes of himself.” To Sartre, existence precedes essence. “first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself.” We define ourselves through the actions we choose to make. We are responsible for ourselves and how we live in this world. “If existence really does precede essence, man is responsible for what he is. Thus, existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him.” To acknowledge our freedom of choice and the responsibility that we hold as a being is, according to Sartre, to live an authentic life. However, Sartre notes that when we make our choices, we must realize that not only are we responsible for ourselves but also for all humanity. “And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.” The very world around us is a product of our decisions and we must take responsibility for it as well. When we realize this they tend to become overwhelmed and, in response, try to cover these facts up and lie to ourselves. We deny our responsibility and our freedoms and live in a state of, what Sartre refers to as, Bad Faith. To live in this Bad Faith is to