Martin Heidegger and Zhuangzi’s concept of death

• Main Author: Cheong, Terence Ming Wei
• Other Authors: Dimitris Apostolopoulos
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Humanities::Philosophy
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78928
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Martin Heidegger is one of the few Western philosophers to depict death as a contribution to the perfection of being. He came up with the notion of Dasein not perishing but experiencing its own demise with death standing before humanity as something to be anticipated. When man leads an authentic attitude in being-towards-death, he is anticipating the possibility of emerging free for his death. Heidegger holds the position that authentic living indicates that death should not be something to be feared upon, rather, one can live a fuller life realising that one's time is limited and death can happen unexpectedly or far sooner than expected. For Heidegger, death is inevitable and non-relational. On the other hand, while Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi shares a similar sentiment of death encapsulating possibilities, he emphasizes the entanglement that death reveals of life. As much as man can learn about death from life, man can also learn a lot about life from death. With his notion of Dao, Zhuangzi holds the belief that death and life are mutually dependent, co-arising modalities of a rhythmic, cyclical patterning. From this perspective, death is seen more as a partner to life as its manifestation occurs not simply at the end of morality, but through all that is alive. This paper will explore Martin Heidegger and Zhuangzi’s concept of death and provide a perspective on death being an essential source of value in life. Even though death is commonly perceived to be a fearful occurrence, this paper will shine some light as to how an acknowledgement of mortality can produce an enlightening existential awareness that death should not be something to be feared upon, rather, death should be embraced in its entirety to add value to life.