Meaning and Mortality in Kierkegaard and Heidegger: Origins of the Existential Philosophy of Death

204 Pages·2016·0.749 MB·English

by  Adam Buben

MEANING AND MORTALITY IN KIERKEGAARD
AND HEIDEGGER

M E A N I N G A N D
M O R T A L I T Y I N
K I E R K E G A A R D
A N D H E I D E G G E R
Origins of the Existential Philosophy
of Death
Adam Buben
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www .nupress .northwestern .edu
Copyright © 2016 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2016. All rights
reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Buben, Adam, 1977– author.
Title: Meaning and mortality in Kierkegaard and Heidegger : origins of the
existential philosophy of death / Adam Buben.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043155| ISBN 9780810132504 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780810132511 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810132528 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Death. | Existentialism. | Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813–1855. |
Heidegger, Martin, 1889–1976.
Classification: LCC BD444 .B77 2016 | DDC 128.5—dc23 LC record available at
http:// lccn.loc .gov/ 2015043155
For Norm

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction 3
1 The Platonic Strain 10
2 The Epicurean Strain 23
3 Kierkegaard’s Death Project 46
4 Kierkegaard’s Appropriation and Criticism of the Tradition 65
5 Death in Being and Time 92
6 Heidegger’s Reception of Kierkegaard: The Existential Philosophy
of Death 109
7 The Limits and Legacy of the Existential Philosophy of Death 122
Notes 137
References 169
Index 181

Acknowledgments
When I tell people (even philosophers) about my philosophical inter-
ests, they often wonder what would lead someone to spend so much time
thinking about something “so depressing.” They seem to assume that my
endeavors must be the scholarly exorcism of demons born from some
past personal trauma. But I have no especially heartrending tale to re-
count about the origins of this project; I honestly can’t even recall when
the topic of death became so important to me. What I do have is an over-
whelming sense of joy and appreciation when I consider the long list of
people who have helped shape my ideas, especially over the last decade or
so. It would be impossible in a short paragraph to acknowledge all of the
family members, friends, and colleagues who have engaged me in fruit-
ful conversations and offered other sorts of moral support and personal
assistance along the way, so I will mention only those individuals who
have had the most direct impact upon the emergence of this book. Chief
among them are my mentors Charles Guignon and Andrew Burgess, and
my close collaborators Megan Altman and Patrick Stokes. Other signifi-
cant debts are owed to (in no particular order): Niels Jørgen Cappelørn,
Jon Stewart, Gordon Marino, Sinead Knox, Iain Thomson, Roger Ariew,
Thomas Williams, James Sellmann, Gerhard Schreiber, Gerhard Thon-
hauser, Douglas Farrer, Steve Burgess, Geoff Pfeifer, Shoni Rancher,
Walter Wietzke, Carl Hughes, Andrew Henscheid, Jeff Hinzmann, the
contributors to Kierkegaard and Death, my proofreading team of Rachel
Baas and Sabina Menotti, and the students from my death class in the
fall of 2010.
Institutionally, I would like to thank the University of South Florida
(Presidential Doctoral Fellowship), the Kierkegaard House Foundation
(House Foundation Fellowship), the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St.
Olaf College (Summer Fellowships), the J. William Fulbright Foreign
Scholarship Board, the Danish- American Fulbright Commission (Ful-
bright Grant), and the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the Univer-
sity of Copenhagen for financial and scholarly support that contributed
to the completion of this project. In addition, I have received various
ix