Death by Heidegger - Essay Example

?Death by Heidegger Introduction Death is concept that presents a number of challenge most of which make its explanations unclear.Every living organism eventually dies a fact that increases the human curiosity on the concept. Among the most conspicuous philosophers who tried to understand the concept of death is Martin Heidegger. He has a radical explanation to the concept always elaborating on the difficulties that death itself presents thereby making its analysis impossible. He believes that people lean best through experience (Heidegger and Joan 11). Men have the ability to experience all other factors thereby acquiring effective knowledge about them. However, death is more complex since it allows no chance for experience. Every other explanation about death to him is therefore mere speculation. Additionally, he observes that everyone is conscious of their inevitable death and always portray fear of the concept but people live their days fully without any psychological disturbance implying that people accommodate the sense of death. Every living organism eventually dies, this is a knowledge that man have but the fact that man cannot always explain the concept of death, people cannot always prepare for it. Scientists in their explanation of death allege death is a state of lifelessness that every organism acquire because of exhaustion of the body tissues. This is a general and a more realistic explanation but its application is relative as different interests groups offer more explanations to the human life well past their deaths. People believe in the existence of God and the life after death, this increases man’s curiosity on the topic of death. However, unlike every other human concept, it is impossible to have a practical study of death. The only people with adequate experience of death are the dead themselves who unfortunately do not ever come back to share their experience with the living. This aspect of death makes the living aware of the existence of death but ignorant of the concept, they cannot therefore prepare adequately for death a factor that results in everyone trying to stay alive for longer. Heidegger seeks to authenticate his explanations from the concept of Dasein a literally inexistent being that is therefore inauthentic. Nevertheless, validates his use of such a concept by asserting that death cannot validate itself since despite its conspicuous existent in the society, it is practical inexistent. Every dead person is unavailable and does not share his understanding of his situation. As scientists explain, such people cease to feel. Their senses die and they cannot literally share anything. Investigating death is therefore difficult and requires the use of more tactful theories of life to ensure understanding of the dead. People anticipate death but it is obvious that everyone would wish to live the longest. Any activity that links man with death is therefore feared. Men live carefully always avoiding any precarious situation capable of jeopardizing their lives. From the fear that the living have for both the dead and death itself, it becomes possible to understand the concept of death. In understanding death, Heidegger uses the experiences of the living. He postulates that people are very careful of their actions and avoid life threatening situations in order to prevent death. Despite the extreme care, death still comes naturally a feature that makes death powerful. He begins his works by investigating the basic factors of humanity thereby establishing the value of every being. He investigates the concept of existence through which he investigates both the origin of life and the subsequent value of every life especially of the human. In his phenomenological explanations of the question of being, he determines the relativities in humans and provides an explanation for such. Heidegger asserts that all humans are born equal with no understanding of the world. However, people begin developing elative understanding of their surrounding and the entire humanity depending on their ability to question. He explains that the human’s ability to question his or her nature develops the personality. He uses this to validate the relativity in people different people possess different interests. The difference in people is an essential aspect of humanity that Heidegger sought to explain. He understands that at birth everyone is equal to the other with minimal understanding of life and the humanity around it. However, with time as man begins to develop, they acquire different levels of knowledge on their surrounding and the aspect of humanity. In explaining the difference in the rate of knowledge acquisition, Heidegger explains that people only acquire the knowledge in which they have interest. This explains the relativity on curiosity that people possess. By providing proof that the ability to question develops the relative understanding to the concept of life and humanity, Heidegger postulates that human ability to question therefore develops his or her nature. His concept of inquisition is relevant as he later explains that the world has all the information that one may develop interest in. however, it does not readily provide it and it is therefore a mandate of the individual to compel the world to reveal its operational functions. He alleges that the world exists as concealment, through the inquisitive human nature; it progressively reveals itself to people therefore providing profound understanding. However, the process of compelling the world to reveal itself is tedious and requires a personality that is more determined and increasingly inquisitive to ensure effective understanding of the reality. Additionally, he asserts that inquisition is a human nature that varies from one person to another. Different people possess different abilities to question their interests. Furthermore, the world is too large for an individual to acquire an effective understanding, he therefore explains that different people possess different inquisitive abilities to enable them understand their environment. The immediate environment is of essence in developing the relative personalities that people exhibit. As Heidegger explains, the inquisitive personality in humans originates from their desire to understand their environment. Through this, he explains the different interests and human nature. Humans are all inquisitive. However, they present relative interests, which result in the relativity in inquisitive nature. The need to understanding ones environment result in the development of the relative curiosity whose satisfaction does not just result in an effective understanding of the world but furthers the curiosity thereby leading in more questions. The progressive nature of the inquisitive personality of humans therefore develops the knowledge in people. To validate his explanations of the human nature, he uses relative and more realistic examples on the contemporary world. He understands that not even the political leaders of the modern societies operate in openness and that the power deals have a number of secrets most of which are not favorable. By developing interests in the modern politics, therefore people become increasingly inquisitive of the operations of the government a factor that does not just result in effective understanding of the operations of the government but also furthers the curiosity to know more about such power dealings. With time, such people develop such aggressive personalities thereby enabling them become political activists or politicians themselves. The modern society is more liberal and increasingly integrated (Heidegger and Joan 21). The use of the internet and other modern technologies of telecommunications have succeeded in making the world a global village. This implies that the society is wider than it was initially and that people have more to learn from the modern world. This therefore requires personalities that are more inquisitive thereby developing the aggressive people capable of surviving in the increasingly competitive society. Additionally, Heidegger offers an in depth analysis of death. To him death is an inevitable aspect of life that unfortunately one does not live to experience. He understands that nobody can explain death since it is not something that one can every live to experience thereby gather experience of. By postulating that as soon as humans are born, they are old enough to die, he asserts that death is inevitable and has no pattern of occurrence always occurring spontaneously and targets any living human. Death is a concept that every living human has fundamental knowledge about. However, one cannot determine his or her death but he asserts that one can influence his or her death. With this understanding, he explains that every human activity is capable of resulting in the extermination of human life and with it, all the ideas that one may have collected. Naturally, humans are skeptic about death and try to avoid death as much as they possibly can. This implies that people live carefully always conscious of their actions and trying to avoid dangerous situations that may result in death (Heidegger and Joan 71). Work cited Heidegger, Martin, and Joan Stambaugh. On Time and Being. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Print. Read More