Being-towards-death means accepting finitude as the core of authentic existence
Evidence
At the very beginning of Being and Time, Heidegger promises that the book will take us to a grand finale in which he will make this ultimate point: that the meaning of Dasein’s Being is Time. He never did this because he never finished the book: what we have is just the first part. But he showed clearly which way he was planning to go. If we are temporal beings by our very nature, then authentic existence means accepting, first, that we are finite and mortal. We will die: this all-important realisation is what Heidegger calls authentic ‘Being-towards-Death’, and it is fundamental to his philosophy. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 292
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clear definition of Being-towards-Death and its centrality to Heidegger’s unfinished masterwork.
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s Death and Dying interest — acceptance of finitude as the authentic stance. — connects to: Death belongs to facticity, not to freedom, and transforms us into the outside. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1268; Attitudes toward death rest on a more fundamental project of living; Authentic existence requires accepting that we will die — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 292 (+5 more)
- FICTION: Existential authenticity as confronting mortality could feed a character whose identity is dismantled by denial of death.
Broader Connections
- Being-towards-death frames mortality as the source of authentic existence
#corroborates(0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 933 - Accepting mortality can make life more meaningful and compassionate
#expands(0.75) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 814 - Feeling a range of emotions about death is necessary.
#expands(0.72) — Lynch, Thomas, The undertaking-life studies from the…, 637