Philippine E-Journals

To Die… Responsibly Levinas’ Critique of Heidegger’s Notion of Death

Mira Tan Reyes

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

Postmodern thinking deconstructed modernity’s project of universal reason and launched different truth frameworks but none of them ever posed the question of death differently from the traditional manner. The question of death has always been: what is the meaning of death? We look for a truth principle or value beyond death or within life which summarizes or makes us adequate both life and death. This paper will expound on Levinas’ critique on the Heideggerian notion of death. Levinas’ concerns are ethical so the meaning of death is located in ethical action. Heidegger’s concerns are existential so the meaning of death is found in Being (in Greek, ale-theia – the unconcealment of truth).