The Philosophical Significance of Death: a Reconstructive Interpretation of Hegel and Heidegger a Thesis Submitted to the Gradua
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DEATH: A RECONSTRUCTIVE INTERPRETATION OF HEGEL AND HEIDEGGER A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY MAYA MANDALİNCİ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY SEPTEMBER 2019 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sadettin Kirazcı Director (Acting) I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Çırakman Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Murat Baç (METU, PHIL) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Çırakman (METU, PHIL) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aret Karademir (METU, PHIL) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çetin Türkyılmaz (Hacettepe Uni., FEL) Prof. Dr. Kaan H. Ökten (Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Uni., FEL) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DEATH: A RECONSTRUCTIVE INTERPRETATION OF HEGEL AND HEIDEGGER Mandalinci, Maya Ph.D., Department of Philosophy Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Çırakman September 2019, 226 pages The main interest of this thesis consists in presenting an ontologico-existential understanding of death as seeking the possible ways to place and hold the nothing within being itself. Interpreting death in light of its belongingess to human being’s very own being initially needs a confrontation with the deeply rooted difficulty of thinking outside the language of binary opposition. Unless this difficulty is eliminated death and the nothing remain to be left out of the domain of being, which is the only domain out of which meaning can occur. Hegel’s dialectic approach will be of assistance to search for an alternative way of moving within the midst of opposites. Yet Hegel’s speculative system in which finitude and infinity as well as being and nothing are shown to be in a constitutive relation can offer only a conceptual solution. As turning to Heidegger, we will then be presented with a comprehensive and rich notion of death. Being able to include death within being will introduce a new understanding of temporality as finite and ecstatic. Within the end it will become possible to question whether the relation between noting and being can be accounted through an ontologico-existential understandin of death. Keywords: Death, Heidegger, Hegel, finitude, possibility. iv ÖZ ÖLÜMÜN FELSEFİ ÖNEMİ: HEGEL VE HEIDEGGER’İN REKONSTRÜKTİF BİR YORUMU Mandalinci, Maya Doktora, Felsefe Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Elif Çırakman Eylül 2019, 226 sayfa Bu tezin başlıca amacı varoluşsal-ontolojik bir ölüm anlayışı ışığında hiçliği varlığın alanında tutmanın olası yollarını araştırmaktır. Ölümü temel olarak insanın varlığına ait oluşu bakımından yorumlamak öncelikle derinlere köklenmiş bir zorluğun aşılmasını gerektirmektedir. Bu zorluk karşıtlık dilinin dışına çıkarak düşünmenin zorluğudur. Bu zorluk giderilmediği sürece ölüm ve hiçlik varlığın alanına dışsal olmaya devam edecektir, halbuki anlamın ortaya çıkacağı başka bir alan mevcut değildir. Burada öncelikle Hegel’in diyalektiği, karşıtların arasında yol alabilmemiz adına bize rehberlik edecektir. Fakat içerisinde sonluluk ve sonsuzluğun, varlık ve hiçliğin kurucu bir ilişkide olduğu Hegel’in spekülatif sistemi bize sadece kavramsal bir çözüm sunabilir. Heidegger’in felsefesine yöneldiğimizde ise orada kapsamlı ve zengin bir ölüm anlayışı ile karşılaşacağız. Ölümü varlığın alanına dahil etmek sonlu ve ekstatik olması bakımından yeni bir zamansallık anlayışını da beraberinde getirecek. Tüm bunların ışığında varlık ve hiçlik ilişkisini varoluşsal-ontolojik bir ölüm anlayışı üzerine temellendirmenin mümkün olup olmadığı sorgulanacak. Anahtar Kelimeler: Ölüm, Heidegger, Hegel, sonluluk, imkan. v To Selahattin Üçüncü vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am greatly indebted to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Çırakman for her kind interest, guidance and support as well as her felicitous criticism and her patience throughout the formation process of this dissertation. I also wish to present my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Kaan H. Ökten for his gracious support over the years and for being a significant inspiration within the research area of death. The assistance of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aret Karademir, Prof. Dr. Murat Baç and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çetin Türkyılmaz have been truly memorable. I am very thankful to each of their commentary and contribution. It is also to be acknowledged that the long-term support of Tübitak as lasting up until the end of my PhD studies has been very helpful. Last but not least, I feel infinitely privileged to have Alev Üçüncü right beside me, endlessly filling my finite being with power and joy both as an academic Muse and as a loving mother. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM…………………………………………………………………….iii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….iv ÖZ………………………………………………………………………………….v DEDICATION………………………………………………………………..…...vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………..……vii TABLE OF CONTENTS....………………………………………………..……viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………….…………………………………………..1 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND…………………………….……………….12 2.1 The Metaphysical and the Moral Approaches towards Death…….…14 2.1.1 The Metaphysical Understanding of Death within the Absence of Annihilation....................................................17 2.1.1.1 The Platonic Understanding of Death as a Path to Transcendence....................................18 2.1.1.2 Neo-Platonism………23 2.1.2 The Moral Understanding of Death: Death as Annihilation.......................................................................32 2.1.2.1 The Epicurean Understanding of Death……….....33 2.1.2.2 Lucretius and the Symmetry Argument.................38 2.1.3 The Concluding Remarks on the Historical Background…40 3 HEGEL: DEATH AS THE SHEER NEGATIVITY........................................43 3.1 The Ubiquity of the Absolute and the Role of the Negative………...43 3.2 The Binary Opposition Problem and the Hegelian Dialectic……......56 3.2.1 The Logical Categories of the Determinate Being: Limit, Finitude and Infinity………………………..….….. 57 3.2.1.1 Limit.......................................................................63 viii 3.2.1.2 Finitude and Infinity..............................................66 3.3 Death in Relation to the Self: The “Self-Consciousness” Chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit..........................................................78 3.3.1 The Master-Slave Dialectic………………………………..81 3.3.2 Dependent Shapes of Self-Consciousness………………...87 3.4 Conclusion: Reanalyzing Death in Light of the Kojèvian Reading…91 4 HEIDEGGER: DEATH AS THE ULTIMATE POSSIBILITY…………….102 4.1 From Dasein to the Question of Being in Being and Time.............. 107 4.2 The Existential Understanding of Death…………………….……..113 4.2.1 Anxiety: Falling Away and Summoning Back…………..116 4.2.2 The Meaning of Death as Possibility……………….……126 4.2.2.1 Not-yet and Wholeness........................................126 4.2.2.2 Coming to an End: Perishing and Demise...........131 4.2.2.3 Death and the Possibility of Being-a-Whole…...134 4.2.2.3.1 The Ontologico-existential Meaning of Death………………………...…141 4.2.2.3.2 The Possibility of Impossibility……...148 4.2.2.3.3 Dasein’s Potentiality-for-Being-its- Self in Anticipatory Resoluteness….152 4.2.2.3.4 Dasein’s Being-a-Whole……………..161 4.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………….....161 5 DEATH AND NOTHING: IN THE WAY TOWARDS HEGEL’S INFINITE ABSOLUTE AND HEIDEGGER’S FINITE BEING…………..167 6 CONCLUSION………………………………………...……………………190 REFERENCES…………………………………………….…………………….197 APPENDICES A. CURRICULUM VITAE…………………………………………………209 B. TURKISH SUMMARY…………………………………………………210 C. TEZ İZİN FORMU………………………………………………………225 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Death, as considered most likely to be the greatest mystery common to each and every human being, would require no less than a substantial amount of philosophical interest that is alone devoted to studying this enigmatic phenomenon. Yet within the historical development of Western philosophy one cannot truly capture this interest. Various explanations can be generated on why Western tradition does not consider this notion as an independent subject matter of philosophy or reflect upon it directly within a proper study of death. Such a neglect does not imply a lack of interest on death itself but rather indicates a deficiency in the way of problematizing this notion. Within its historical development the notion of death, by itself, is not brought under an ontological consideration. Rather it is taken up in light of certain presuppositions that diminish the concern of putting this notion to an initial philosophical examination.1 One of the leading assumptions that guides this discussion and leads towards a certain and fixed type of understanding of death is the dual language of the predominant Western tradition, which places death as strictly opposite to life. Within this language of binary opposition death 1 It is possible to consider this philosophical disinterest under the Heideggerian sense of a forgetfulness,