sein-zum-tode

SEIN-ZUM-TODE, roughly 46cm x 35.5cm, oils on canvas, finalised in 2012SEIN-ZUM-TODE (German phrase that can be translated into "being-toward-death, a piece of technical terminology conceived in the mind of the philosopher Heidegger) roughly 46cm x 35.5cm, oils on canvas, finalised in 2012.

The following excerpt from Wikipaedia probably won't throw any more light on the issue.

Being-toward-death is not an orientation that brings Dasein closer to its end, in terms of clinical death, but is rather a way of being.[3] Heideggerian terminology refers to a process of growing through the world where a certain foresight guides the Dasein towards gaining an authentic perspective. It is provided by dread or death. In the analysis of time, it is revealed as a threefold condition of Being. Time, the present and the notion of the "eternal", are modes of temporality. Temporality is the way we see time. For Heidegger, it is very different from the mistaken view of time as being a linear series of past, present and future. Instead he sees it as being an ecstasy, an outside-of-itself, of futural projections (possibilities) and one's place in history as a part of one's generation. Possibilities, then, are integral to our understanding of time; our projects, or thrown projection in-the-world, are what absorb and direct us. Futurity, as a direction toward the future that always contains the past—the has-been—is a primary mode of Dasein's temporality.

Death is that possibility which is the absolute impossibility of Dasein. As such, it cannot be compared to any other kind of ending or "running out" of something. For example, one's death is not an empirical event. For Heidegger, death is Dasein's ownmost (it is what makes Dasein individual), it is non-relational (nobody can take one's death away from one, or die in one's place, and we can not understand our own death through the death of other Dasein), and it is not to be outstripped. The "not-yet" of life is always already a part of Dasein: "as soon as man comes to life, he is at once old enough to die." The threefold condition of death is thus simultaneously one's "ownmost potentiality-for-being, non-relational, and not to be out-stripped". Death is determinate in its inevitability, but an authentic Being-toward-death understands the indeterminate nature of one's own inevitable death - one never knows when or how it is going to come. However, this indeterminacy does not put death in some distant, futural "not-yet"; authentic Being-toward-death understands one's individual death as always already a part of one.[4]

With average, everyday (normal) discussion of death, all this is concealed. The "they-self" talks about it in a fugitive manner, passes it off as something that occurs at some time but is not yet "present-at-hand" as an actuality, and hides its character as one's ownmost possibility, presenting it as belonging to no one in particular. It becomes devalued - redefined as a neutral and mundane aspect of existence that merits no authentic consideration. "One dies" is interpreted as a fact, and comes to mean "nobody dies".[5]

On the other hand, authenticity takes Dasein out of the "They," in part by revealing its place as a part of the They. Heidegger states that Authentic being-toward-death calls Dasein's individual self out of its "they-self", and frees it to re-evaluate life from the standpoint of finitude. In so doing, Dasein opens itself up for "angst," translated alternately as "dread" or as "anxiety." Angst, as opposed to fear, does not have any distinct object for its dread; it is rather anxious in the face of Being-in-the-world in general - that is, it is anxious in the face of Dasein's own self. Angst is a shocking individuation of Dasein, when it realizes that it is not at home in the world, or when it comes face to face with its own "uncanny" (German Unheimlich: "not at home"). In Dasein's individuation, it is open to hearing the "call of conscience," which comes from Dasein's own Self when it wants to be its Self. This Self is then open to truth, understood as unconcealment (Greek Aletheia). In this moment of vision, Dasein understands what is hidden as well as hiddenness itself, indicating Heidegger's regular uniting of opposites; in this case, truth and untruth.[6]

HOME


eBooks by Cosmic Rapture:

NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS This so-called "book" will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you twitching and frothing on the carpet. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously illustrated by over 20 grotesque images you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

AWAREWOLF & OTHER CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Vot could be Verse?) We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.

MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS A disturbing repository of quotably quirky quotes, sayings, proverbs, maxims, ponderances, adages and aphorisms. This menagerie holds no fewer than 184 memes from eight meme-species perfectly adapted to their respective environments.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

Starmandala said...

Gatecrasher at the fancy dress ball on the eve of the apocalypse that wasn't.

masterymistery said...

Antares, Welcome back from Peru.

So you're saying the Mayan's got it wrong? ;) Actually, your suggestion/description rings true. I've always felt like I gatecrashed the party we know as Reality, in which nothing is as it appears to be (=fancy dress ball). Thanks for your comment.

Bruce Thompson said...

Love the new artwork, Steve! The little beast like man is indeed an Apocayptic character in the painting. He is a masterpiece in himself!

masterymistery said...

Thanks Bruce, appreciate your comments. There's definitely an "end-of-days" feeling to the painting. I wonder if that's a premonition or just too much time spent watching YouTube videos!

SHUBHAJIT said...

Death is more beautiful with your painting.

Death is a term, in fact we are all dying every second, why death is to be feared? As if we can control it arrival..Love death and live life!!!

masterymistery said...

Shubhajit, yes I agree. I don't understand why death is feared. Thank you for your insightful comment. Cheers, MM

Unknown said...

I think just about everything we do is in essence a way to cheat death. This may be particularly true in the case of creative souls. I'm a little embarrassed to admit how many of the actions I've taken are the result of subconsciously wanting to beat death at its own game.

The Netherworld blogs are now all wrapped into one unit.
http://undeadinthenetherworld.blogspot.com

Of course a lot of the other things I've done may simply be the result of bipolar disorder. Such as trying to manage 666 blogs at once!

Unknown said...

Of course none of it matters as the planets will march into lineup and Niburu will take us all out like a bowling ball hitting the pins.

People have seriously misinterpreted the Mayan calendar. That was just the end of a cycle. But it's entertaining to watch all the "Apocalypse--what? Now?" videos on You Tube.

masterymistery said...

Hi Lily, when people say the end of the world they mainly mean the end of the species. And there's a strong argument that the world would be better off without the species. I think it would be kinda cool to observe the end of what Jonathan Swift called the most pernicious race of odious little vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl across the face of the Earth: humankind.

Re the end of the world, it's the fault of large multinational corporations, isn't it? And banks and finance companies. I got my own back earlier this year when I bought a new jumbo color TV and accoutrements on terms: No deposit, no interest nothing to pay until 2013. Suckers!

Thanks for your comments. Cheers, MM