Aspects Of Man And Mortality
Man is the only species that understands that life will end at some point. Man has also created an entire subject to study man and mortality, which is called philosophy.
We spend a lot of time reflecting on man and death.
It seems that it is our awareness of mortality that makes us reflect on our everyday actions and decisions on a transcendental level.
Borges talks in his story The Immortal about a man who lives forever. Once this man encounters Homer, who is also immortal.
After the meeting, he wonders if he said goodbye to Homer. However, two immortals have no need to say “goodbye”. There is no “end” that would have been an obstacle to this possibility.
Man and mortality: man is thrown back to earth
As we mentioned above, every moment of your life is unique because the path in front of you is a path to death.
It is as if people have been thrown into a world where their historical, social and family situations are already given. Does this relationship between man and mortality mean that your life is predetermined?
Martin Heidegger, the most important existential philosopher of the 20th century, believed that the awareness of our finite nature makes it extremely desirable to have an authentic way of thinking.
A non-authentic mindset is not reflexive and does not help us to live a perfect life.
Man and the non-authentic thinking
To gain a better understanding of what non-authentic thinking is, you can imagine the following situation.
You hop in a taxi, the radio is on, and the driver starts telling you about the news she hears on the radio. She shares her opinion on the subject, which you could have predicted based on the radio station she listens to.
Heidegger believed that it is not authentic to repeat the ideas and opinions of others without reflecting on them. The taxi driver (just one example) does not reflect on what she is saying. Instead, she only repeats the opinions of others.
For Heidegger, a non-authentic life means living in the outside world. Your life is therefore unaware of its mortality.
When man is aware of his own mortality, he becomes interested in having his own thoughts and making his own decisions.
Man and authentic thinking
Man has come from nothing and will return to nothing. Your state as a human being makes you think more about possibilities than realities.
You are your possibilities, and the possibility that stands above all other possibilities is death. It does not matter what you choose to do with your life. You will eventually die. Mortality is something that follows us all.
People who choose an authentic life do so because of the anxiety that the thoughts about death give rise to. How does it feel when you think of nothing, about ceasing to exist?
They make their own decisions when they know that their lives are unique and that every moment could have been your last.
