An Ontological Study of Death: From Hegel to Heidegger

Contents

Acknowledgments .............................................................................. vii Abbreviations of Frequently Used Works and Editions ...................... ix INTRODUCTION • Philosophical, Historical, and Pathological Models of Death .................................................... 1 ONE • Hegel: The Dialectic of Death ................................................ 28 From Dualism to Unification: The Bernese and Frankfurt Manuscripts (1793–1800) .......................................................... 31 Death as Negativity: Phenomenology of Spirit (1806–07) ............ 44 Hegel in France: Existentialism and Death .................................... 64 TWO • Hölderlin: Dialectical Death and Ontological Guilt .......... 79 The Problem of Unification and Dialectics .................................... 80 Dialectical Death in Hyperion ........................................................ 92 The Death of Empedocles: Genesis and Drafts .............................. 98 THREE • Nietzsche: The Deaths of Empedocles and Zarathustra .................................................................................. 128 Empedocles and the Problem of Tragedy ...................................... 130 The Existential Function of Death in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Other Writings .................................................................... 150 FOUR • Rilke: The Holistic Recovery of Death .............................. 178 Modes of Death: Modernity, Authenticity, and Totality ................ 180 The Holism of Life and Death ........................................................ 202 FIVE • Heidegger: The Ontology and Onticity of Death ................ 229 The Authenticity of Thinking and Thanking .................................. 232 Contents The Existential-Ontological Analytic of Death in Being and Time .......................................................................... 244 The Attestation of an Authentic Being-toward-Death: Forward-Running Resoluteness in Heidegger and Hölderlin .... 270 EPILOGUE • The Dignity of Death and the Right to Die .................. 281 Notes .................................................................................................... 289 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 309 Index .................................................................................................... 321 vi Contents ...