HUMAN PERSON AND DEATH

MODIFIED TRUE OR FALSE

1. Immortality can be achieved by man.

2. Death is impending.
3. We can always design how we will die.
4. Two persons can totally share same experience of death
5. Death is one of the surest thing in the world.
6. We can always say that there is still time.
7. We waste our lives by living the life we don’t want.
8. Following the society would mean a good existence.
9. Death comes at the time we expect it will come.
10. Though we don’t know when we will die, we can prepare for it.
• What I Know we all –
• FALSE die.
• TRUE we –
• FALSE may not know how we will die. one’s –
• FALSE death is unique
• TRUE we –
• FALSE never know when we will die
• TRUE we –
• FALSE should live the life we personally want. death –
• FALSE is impending
• TRUE
 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?

• 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!
 BEFORE AND AFTER

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