Death, Faith & Existentialism
Filiz Peach explains what two of the greatest existentialist thinkers thought about death: Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers.
This can make for any number of rather mind-boggling scenarios. If you are convinced that death encompasses the utter obliteration of all that you know and love, of all that you are as an extant human being, what then would you be willing to do to prolong that life? For example, how many others would you be willing to trample on if they got in the way of your continuing to exist?
Say some sadistic bastard threatened to kill someone you love – or many that you love – if you did not take your own life…is there a “right answer” here? In fact, we can think up any in number of situations in which, in order to sustain the existence of “I”, we might be required to do all manner of nasty things.
Is there a line here that you won’t cross?
This is just intellectual gibberish to me. As though the flesh and blood ontic dasein can explore the ontological philosophical Dasein and come away with an understanding that makes the points that I raise go away.
Unless, of course, someone here would like to make that attempt. Given a particular context.
Instead, the closest that the “serious philosopher” seems to come is encompassed in an assessment of this sort:
Again, what I would prefer are those who either agree with or disagree with Heidegger’s assessment of Dasein, Being and Authenticity, noting how in their own interactions with others these capital letter words are relevant to encounters that precipitate conflicting behaviors revolving around conflicting value judgments that are not manifested existentially given the manner in which I construe the meaning of dasein in my signature threads.