Meaning and Mortality in Kierkegaard and Heidegger: Origins of the Existential Philosophy of Death - Softcover

Buben, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810132508 ISBN 13: 9780810132504

Verlag: Northwestern University Press, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Death is one of those few topics that attract the attention of just about every significant thinker in the history of Western philosophy, and this attention has resulted in diverse and complex views on death and what comes after. In Meaning and Mortality, Adam Buben offers a remarkably useful new framework for understanding the ways in which philosophy has discussed death by focusing first on two traditional strains in the discussion, the Platonic and the Epicurean. After providing a thorough account of this ancient dichotomy, he describes the development of an alternative means of handling death in Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger, whose work on death tends to overshadow Kierkegaard's despite the undeniable influence exerted on him by the nineteenth-century Dane. Buben argues that Kierkegaard and Heidegger prescribe a peculiar way of living with death that offers a kind of compromise between the Platonic and the Epicurean strains.

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ADAM BUBEN is an assistant professor of comparative philosophy at Leiden University College in the Netherlands.

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Meaning and Mortality in Kierkegaard and Heidegger

Origins of the Existential Philosophy of Death

By Adam Buben

Northwestern University Press

Copyright © 2016 Northwestern University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8101-3250-4

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
List of Abbreviations, 
Introduction, 
1 The Platonic Strain, 
2 The Epicurean Strain, 
3 Kierkegaard's Death Project, 
4 Kierkegaard's Appropriation and Criticism of the Tradition, 
5 Death in Being and Time, 
6 Heidegger's Reception of Kierkegaard: The Existential Philosophy of Death, 
7 The Limits and Legacy of the Existential Philosophy of Death, 
Notes, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

The Platonic Strain

Plato

After "unsuccessfully" defending himself against the charges brought by his accusers, Plato's Socrates elaborates on the notion of death as a transition into another form of existence in the Phaedo. Although Socrates continues to discuss the possibility of death as the way to nonexistence in this retelling of the final prison dialogue, he seems far less open to it than he is in the Apology. This difference in attitude toward the possibility of annihilation may have something to do with Plato's inclusion of Pythagorean interlocutors, given Pythagorean belief in the transmigration of souls. Leaning toward the idea of continued existence, the Phaedo is largely focused around the famous claim that "the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death" (64a). This claim is as perplexing to the participants in the conversation as it might be to modern readers. After all, what could it mean to connect philosophy and death so intimately?

This connection, it turns out, is deeply rooted in what has come to be known as "Platonic metaphysics." According to this view of the nature of things, as described in the Phaedo, a human is made up of both body and soul, and prior to birth the soul exists apart from the body in a pure state, bordering on the divine, in which it has access to a more perfect knowledge of reality than is possible while embodied in the world (75b–77a). Thus, if Socrates can establish that the soul will return to such a state after death, when it is again separated from the body, then it will be reasonable to view death as a great gain, rather than as a great loss (which is the common sentiment Socrates also rebuts in the Apology). In a departure, then, from his noncommittal attitude in the Apology and in opposition to future Epicurean doctrines, Socrates offers several arguments in the Phaedo in support of a specific sort of postmortem existence of the soul. For example, he adopts a cyclical view of life and death in which "living" souls can only come from "dead" souls, and he supplements this notion by explaining why only what is bodily can ever be properly destroyed (77c–80d). Although his arguments do not seem entirely compelling to either the modern reader or, in many cases, his interlocutors (and Socrates himself may come to no firm conclusion), what is important to notice for the sake of the present account is the desirability of release from the corruptible body in the interest of attaining lasting truth and knowledge (64c–70d).

This desirability not only explains why philosophers, as lovers of knowledge or wisdom, should "fear death least of all men" (Phaedo 67e), but it also explains the troubling notion of philosophy as practice for death. Socrates points out that it is their very love of wisdom that causes philosophers to cultivate the qualities of the soul at the expense of the worldly interests of their bodies. It is a similar sort of casting off of bodily interests in exchange for a higher existence of more perfect knowledge that takes place when one's life ends, if Socrates's arguments are to be believed. There is a sense then, albeit a limited and impermanent one, in which the practice of philosophy attempts to separate the soul from the body and imitate the experience of being dead (80d–81c). For this reason, Socrates claims that philosophizing is a sort of dying and "true philosophers are nearly dead" (64b). To characterize the Platonic strain of the philosophy of death thus far: the highest form of life approximates, as closely as possible, being dead, which is really a prolonged and perfected form of existence.

Early Christian Appropriation

A few hundred years after the establishment of the numerous schools of philosophy in Greece, the Apostle Paul undertook several journeys in the first century C.E. around the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean in order to preach the message of Jesus Christ. Although he founded churches in several cities of significance to the history of philosophy, including one in relatively close proximity to Athens (at Corinth), the New Testament reports that his encounters with philosophers were occasionally somewhat hostile. In fact, the book of Acts (which may or may not be a reliable source of information about Paul's activities) describes Paul's time in Athens, where he was not able to found a church, and suggests that his less than stellar results in Plato's hometown were due in part to disagreements with "some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers" (Acts 17:18 [NRSV]). Nonetheless, it would seem that the lessons of Greek thought (which might include, perhaps somewhat indirectly, Platonic lessons) were not lost on the well-educated Paul.

On the specific issue of death, Paul seems to have found a great ally — probably unknowingly — in the philosophy of Plato. Just as Socrates sees a way of approximating death through philosophical pursuits, Paul sees faith in Christ as producing a living death in the believer. The dying of the pre-Christian self and the subsequent rebirth as a follower of Christ, which this death makes possible, is a recurring theme throughout his New Testament letters. But one need not rely entirely on Paul in order to get the impression that Christianity and life as we ordinarily know it are not destined for peaceful coexistence. According to the gospels, Jesus himself often warns his disciples that a life of worldly concerns is not conducive to the proper care of the soul (e.g., Matt. 16:24–26; Luke 14:26). Because a worldly life is inhospitable to a Christian soul, Paul points out that such a life must end before Christianity can take root (e.g., 2 Cor. 4:10–12, 5:14–19; Gal. 2:20). But how exactly is one to understand death as the precondition for Christian life? Fortunately for the aspiring Christian, Christ's own life provides a model for finding life in death.

Just as Christ is said to have died on the cross to overcome the sin of the world, but later rose from the dead, one who would be a follower of Christ must also die to the sin of the world in order to live free from its tyranny (1 Pet. 2:24). There are two senses in which this analogy might hold true for the Christian. First, there is a sense in which one must physically die in order to be reborn in a heavenly afterlife, free from the sinful world. Second, there is a sense in which one must figuratively die to the sinful desires and preoccupations that come from being in the world, in order to become ready for Christ-like living. Romans 6:6–8 states, "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed. ... If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." While this passage might support both...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Northwestern University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0810132508
• ISBN 13: 9780810132504
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 189
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande