Death, Demise, and Nibbāna : Interpreting Heidegger on ‘Being-Towards-Death’

This paper offers an interpretation of Heidegger’s conception of being-towards-death that differs from the ‘mortality’ and ‘world collapse’ readings that are dominant in the secondary literature. It takes as its point of departure the incompleteness and projective orientation implied by Heidegger’s characterization of Dasein as ‘being-possible’. In contrast to other entities, Dasein is not fully present because it is characterized in terms of possibility rather than actuality. But Dasein is constantly directed towards the actualization of its possibilities. That means that Dasein is constantly directed towards bringing about the condition in which – as fully actual rather than being-possible – it would cease to be Dasein. This, the paper argues, is what Heidegger means by ‘being-towards-death’. It fleshes out this point by showing important parallels between Heidegger’s practical philosophy and Buddhist soteriology: what Heidegger means by ‘death’ resembles in some important respects the Buddhist ideal of nibbāna rather than the end of a human life.