Death: One’s Ownmost Possibility (Freedom) or a Social Event? An Exploration of the Works of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas

Anthony Kwaku Boakye ORCID iD 

Issue: Vol.5  No.16 Issue Article 19 pp.2923 – 2929
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202451619 | Published online 19th December, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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This study explored the works of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas and how they both approached the subject of death, as to whether death should be understood in the context of one’s ownmost possibility or just a social event. This paper examined the notion of death as construed by both Levinas and Heidegger and how it might help to understand the nature of the world, especially the question of how one dies. The methodology used in this study is qualitative. The understanding of death according to Heidegger has been grounded in his concept of Dasein the basic fact of our existence. Due to this, Dasein must live an authentic life through the recognition of mortality.  Levinas strongly argues that to be responsible for the Other is deep-rooted in one’s subjective makeup.  Hence, to meet the Face of the Other is to have the notion of meeting a Being in eternity. This is when one philosophizes beyond oneself by going beyond the limits of what the mind can tell.  That goes beyond what Edmund Husserl and Heidegger emphasized, the phenomenon of being (the being of subjects and objects).  In a sense, one goes beyond history and consciousness where even in death it is not only the I that dies but also the Other. This means death now becomes a relational activity. The death of the Other is the death of the entire community. This study will contribute to the scholarly understanding that one dies alone.

Keywords: Dasein, Authenticity, Inauthenticity, Face, Responsibility

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time… Translated by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. (First English Edition). London, 1962.

Levinas, Emmanuel. The Other, Utopia, and Justice. Entre Nous: On Thinking-of-the-Other. Columbia University Press New York, NY, 1998.

———. The Philosopher and Death. Alterity and Transcendence. Columbia University Press New York, 1999.

———. “Time and the Other.” In The Levina Reader, edited by S. Hand. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.

———. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. Vol. 1. Springer Science & Business Media, 1979.

———. “Violence of the Face.” In Alterity and Transcendence. , edited by P. Hayat. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

Watts, Michael. The Philosophy of Heidegger. Routledge, 2014.

Rev. Fr. Anthony Kwaku Boakye, FLP, Ma.Th., Ph.D., currently lectures at the University of Ghana’s Department of Philosophy and Classics. His research career began by enrolling at the Spiritan University College in Kumasi Ghana to study Philosophy. In 2009,  he moved to the Adamson University Philippines to continue his philosophical studies as a member of the servants of the Paraclete congregation and graduated in 2014 (magna cum laude). After Adamson University he joined the Franciscans of Our Lady of the Poor (FLP). He took his theological formation at the Don Bosco Centre of Studies: an affiliate of the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome at Paranaque City Philippines and simultaneously had a master’s in philosophy from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2014. He obtained a master’s degree in philosophy in 2017 and 2018 obtained another two degrees, that is, a bachelor’s degree in ecclesiastical theology and a master’s degree in sacred scripture (magna cum laude). While still studying theology he also gained admission to take his doctorate in philosophy at De La Salle University Taft in 2017 and finished in 2021 with the doctoral dissertation entitled, “Levinas’ Ethics and the Phenomenon of Dignity,” soon to be published as a book with a new title, “Ethics of Transcendence.” His main research interests are in the areas of Metaphysics, Epistemology, Continental philosophy, Feminist philosophy, Analytic philosophy, Phenomenology, and Existentialism.

Boakye, Anthony Kwaku. “Death: One’s Ownmost Possibility (Freedom) or a Social Event? An Exploration of the Works of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.16 (2024):2923 – 2929. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202451619

© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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