2 - Existential perspectives

Summary

The anticipation of death

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

(Luke 12:16–20)

This well-known parable prefigures a theme common in the literature of existentialism. According to a recent commentator on Heidegger: “we typically flee in the face of death. We regard death as something that happens primarily to others, whom we think of as simply more cases or instances of death, as if they were mere tokens of an essentially impersonal type” (Mulhall 2005: 130). And that appears to be just what the parable's rich man does: he pretends that death does not concern him, ignoring the fact that it could arrive at any time without announcement.

Existentialist writers lay particular stress on the need for individuals to recognize unflinchingly the conditions under which they live in the world.