Quarter 3 – Module 8 :

Human Person and Death

Phenomenological Notion of Death

According to Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) in his book Being and Time, death is (a) certain, (b) indefinite, (c) one’s property, (d)
non-relational, and (e) not to be outstripped.
Death is certain. As part of humanness, we are all born (in Heideggerian sense, we are “thrown”) in the world. The world is
governed by time. We, humans, are existing in time, thus, as being thrown in 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.

Death is one’s property. The death of the person belongs to him. Nobody can experience his death except himself. There can be no
proxies or substitutes for a person in experiencing death.

Death is non-relational. This means that when we die, we die alone. We have no choice but to face it on our own.

Death also removes all our relations to others. In contemplating death, we realize our own individuality and independence from
the world.

Death is not to be outstripped. Death cannot be taken away from a person. Even the person himself cannot remove the possibility
of death in his life. One cannot make himself live forever. Even though we see in fiction movies the idea of immortality, death, in
real life is a definite reality which we nothing can be done to be outstripped.

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 true and meaningful existence.
According to Soren Kierkegaard, we have to avoid the crowd – the majority of the society which we think that 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 marrying. 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!