Perhaps denial of personal mortality - either in the form of a perpetual
"putting off" of the event, or, more controversially, the positing of
an eternal afterlife, is the inauthentic mode of B-T-D. I wonder, then,
if a morbid preoccupation with one's inevitable demise might also be an
inauthentic mode, since it treats my ending something like a fait
accompli, rather than an outstanding possibility-for-being?
On Thu, 2 Nov 1995 JPhMiller@xxxxxxx wrote:
> On 10/30 William Lenco wrote:
>
> "Now this "Death" Heidegger says is "possible at each and every
> moment" but taking this in the way it is commonly taken is to make what I
> see as a fatal flaw when in comes to reading about Death in Heidgger. (Sit
> back - this might take a bit).
> " When you think of Dasein as being constituted by "understanding"
> (read: "possibility" or "not-yet") then you get a better sense of death
> "being-possible" at "each and every moment". This does not mean that we can
> die at "any time". It does not mean that any second now we could keel over.
> It does not even mean that every instant contains within it the possibility
> that we could die (which is how it is normally taken). Although, all these
> things are true.
> "What is does mean is much more subtle and deep than that. It means
> that at every moment I am "die-ing". Being-towards-the-end is always a
> possibility that I have (*have contained within my Being* and not as a
> possibility of something that *could happen to me*)."
>
> I agree with what is said here, but I would add that "dying" in Heidegger's
> sense also implies that one is intentionally related toward one's own death.
>
> That, I take it, is the import of the phrase "being-toward-death": it's not
> just
> that I have death as a possiblilty, but also that I speak about my own death,
> I have opinions about it, I "intend" it, in the phenomenological sense.
> ("Being-
> toward" is a technical term in Heidegger's phenomenological lexicon.)
>
> Note also that being-toward-death is not the same as _authentic_ being-
> toward-death. Being-toward-death simply speaking is an unavoidable
> existential structure. But it's quite possible, as Heidegger argues, to be-
> toward death in an inauthentic way, in which my intention of my own death
> is wholly derived from the public interpretation of death of I have absorbed
> from others.
>
> Phil Miller
>
>
> --- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
"putting off" of the event, or, more controversially, the positing of
an eternal afterlife, is the inauthentic mode of B-T-D. I wonder, then,
if a morbid preoccupation with one's inevitable demise might also be an
inauthentic mode, since it treats my ending something like a fait
accompli, rather than an outstanding possibility-for-being?
On Thu, 2 Nov 1995 JPhMiller@xxxxxxx wrote:
> On 10/30 William Lenco wrote:
>
> "Now this "Death" Heidegger says is "possible at each and every
> moment" but taking this in the way it is commonly taken is to make what I
> see as a fatal flaw when in comes to reading about Death in Heidgger. (Sit
> back - this might take a bit).
> " When you think of Dasein as being constituted by "understanding"
> (read: "possibility" or "not-yet") then you get a better sense of death
> "being-possible" at "each and every moment". This does not mean that we can
> die at "any time". It does not mean that any second now we could keel over.
> It does not even mean that every instant contains within it the possibility
> that we could die (which is how it is normally taken). Although, all these
> things are true.
> "What is does mean is much more subtle and deep than that. It means
> that at every moment I am "die-ing". Being-towards-the-end is always a
> possibility that I have (*have contained within my Being* and not as a
> possibility of something that *could happen to me*)."
>
> I agree with what is said here, but I would add that "dying" in Heidegger's
> sense also implies that one is intentionally related toward one's own death.
>
> That, I take it, is the import of the phrase "being-toward-death": it's not
> just
> that I have death as a possiblilty, but also that I speak about my own death,
> I have opinions about it, I "intend" it, in the phenomenological sense.
> ("Being-
> toward" is a technical term in Heidegger's phenomenological lexicon.)
>
> Note also that being-toward-death is not the same as _authentic_ being-
> toward-death. Being-toward-death simply speaking is an unavoidable
> existential structure. But it's quite possible, as Heidegger argues, to be-
> toward death in an inauthentic way, in which my intention of my own death
> is wholly derived from the public interpretation of death of I have absorbed
> from others.
>
> Phil Miller
>
>
> --- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---