OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF DEATH: A CLUE FROM AN ONTOLOGICAL ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN HEIDEGGER AND SARTRE

Résumé

There is hardly any concept in any human language that is as terrifying and frightening as the term death, perhaps due to its enigmatic status. In fact, no normal human being, except a suicide which itself has been established to be a mental disorder, wants to die. Even serial killers, when apprehended, are often seen pleading to be allowed to live. To many human beings, the word death is anathema which extinguishes all enthusiasms. The only time, it seems, the mention of death is trivialized is when referring to the death of a distant person not attached to us. In effect, human beings do not want to die but to live endless time and timeless end, to the extent that even those promised a heavenly place of bliss and sage-hood after death are equally caught in the web of the fear of dying. What an existential paradox! Thus, it therefore elicits the question; do human beings really fear death or they fear something else concealed by the phenomenon of death? The position of this paper is in the latter. It posits that concealed by the phenomenon of death, which are more fundamental than the simple act of dying includes; the unknown, the unaccomplished projections, the unceremonious parting of ways with loved ones, sweet memories of human sojourn and the attendant existential goodies. These are the actual undisclosed fears. On the strength of this new understanding, the essay attempts to examine the asymmetrical conversation between Heidegger and Sartre on the value of death, with the goal of teasing out how humans can surmount its fear and actualize earthly possibilities. As an inquiry in existential ontology, it adopts a phenomenological approach. With this method, the paper presents death as not just that event which happens to human beings which leads to cessation of life. Rather, as a being that is and has always been present in the very being of man right from birth. Building on this new dimension, the paper alleys the fear of death among the living.