Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology and analysis of the death phenomenon

Abstract

This article aims to present Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenological method, explaining how this philosopher applied such methodology in his analysis of the phenomenon of death in Being and Time. To achieve this objective, this study will expose what constitutes the method, what its theoretical assumptions and main approaches are, as well as point out how it was applied by Heidegger to analyze the phenomenon of death. Even though it cannot be objectified, measured, quantified, and controlled, the phenomenon presents itself as a reality that can be understood from the most fundamental human experience: the open existence (Dasein) which shows itself as a “being-toward-death”. By realizing themselves as “beings-to-death”, human beings can experience their existence not as something closed, measured, and determined, but as a possibility, opening and process.