Abstract
Human death as a subject for inquiry is so general a topic that I believe much can be perceived and said about its character from different perspectives and in a variety of ways. Even within the realm of philosophical inquiry itself the range of suggestion appears to be so vast and immense that if one does not confine oneself to a specific realm of inquiry one runs the risk of saying too much about the subject in too general a fashion. For my part, however, I have confined myself to a study of human death from the point of view of existential phenomenology. The fundamental aim of this thesis has therefore been to provide an outline for the existential phenomenological study of human death. In this regard, such an attempt may suggest that I have a clear, preconceived idea as to the character of existential phenornenological and its appropriate methodological devices. It should however, be mentioned that this is not the case in this study, since I have not, from the outset, taken anything for granted. So, in this work it might be said that the study of human death itself proceeds alongside that to of possibilities and the scope of existential phenomenology. Thus, to fulfil this programme I have committed myself to a general framework namely, the study of human death and the characterization of the different ways in which death is presented on the sole basis of existential experiences - experiences which pertain primarily to the realm of one’s existence.In other words, what I have taken to be of prime importance is the study of human death particularly in re1ation to the different modes of human existence. Therefore I have
limited myself to the study of those philosophers concerned with human death whom I have found to be appropriate for my purpose, and have consequently disregarded the study of those whose scope of inquiry I have found to lie outside the realm of my study.
| Date of Award | 1974 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | F.P. Bordet (Supervisor) |