Being-Toward-Death

Definition

Being-toward-death (Sein zum Tode) is heidegger-martin's term for Dasein's relationship to its ownmost, non-relational, and not-to-be-outstripped possibility. Death is "ownmost" because no one can die for me; "non-relational" because it strips away all relations to others and the world; "not to be outstripped" because it is certain and inevitable. "Death is Dasein's ownmost possibility. Being towards this possibility discloses to Dasein its ownmost potentiality-for-Being, in which its very Being is the issue" (Being and Time, §53, H. 263). Authentic Being-toward-death is anticipation (Vorlaufen)—wrenching oneself from the they and taking up one's ownmost possibility. The they evades death by saying "one dies"—transforming death into a public event that happens to "no one in particular."

Key Thinkers

• heidegger-martin — developed the concept in Being and Time (1927) as the pathway to authenticity; anticipation of death individualizes Dasein and reveals care as a whole.
• arendt-hannah — critiques Heidegger's mortality-centered ontology; positions natality (the capacity to begin) as the central political category. "Natality, and not mortality, may be the central category of political, as distinguished from metaphysical, thought" (The Human Condition, p. 9).
• (Elisabeth Kübler-Ross — stages of grief model; engages with the psychology of dying. No author page yet — see log.md.)

Related Concepts

• dasein — the entity that is toward death.
• care — being-toward-death reveals care as a whole.
• temporality — being-toward-death is the future-oriented ecstasis of temporality.
• arendt-hannah — natality vs. mortality debate.
• uncanny — being-toward-death reveals uncanniness.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss being-toward-death:

• heidegger-1927-being-and-time — the foundational analysis (§46-53, §62); death as ownmost possibility, anticipation, the they's evasion.
• arendt-1958-the-human-condition — natality vs. mortality; the political category against Heidegger's metaphysical emphasis.

Open Questions

• How does being-toward-death relate to dwelling? Is dwelling a form of being-toward-death?
• Can architecture engage mortality without becoming morbid or nostalgic?
• What is the relationship between being-toward-death and spectacle? Does spectacular culture evade death? mortality authenticity temporality Sein-zum-Tode