Learning to Appreciate Human Temporality

Abstract

Human temporality is one of the most significant features of human existence. This chapter examines the concept of time and its relationship with the nature of human existence; it then goes on to explore Heidegger’s concept of authenticity in relation to the certainty of death. Given the fact that the upholding of the objective and impersonal knowledge of death, particularly the biomedical one, had hindered us from seeing death as it is, the existential significance of the subjective and experiential views of dying and death is emphasized. This chapter concludes that learning to appreciate human temporality can be understood as learning to appreciate the ultimate nature of human existence and learning to appreciate the present based on the reverence of human mortality and the right view that sees death as it really is.