This is a brief philosophical inquiry into the meaning of being human. In order to appreciate the meaning of our human life, we must contemplate the contribution death plays in our being fully alive. Living and dying appear together and are deeply entangled. We exist as a particular form of being, a human being. Existential philosophy gives us a rich understanding of personhood.
I use the German noun Dasein [literally meaning ‘there being’ or ‘being there.]’ sometimes used in philosophical discussion for ‘person’. Dasein implies that a person is a ‘locus’ a ‘there’ where the world happens, takes place. A person, a Dasein, is an opening in which the truth of the world can reveal itself. The Greek word for ‘truth’ is aletheia’ – that which is revealed. [‘a‘ = ‘un’ – ‘letheia’ ‘veil’]
This is an important self-understanding. We are not a solid permanent structure but a dynamic process, a subject able to act, not an object merely acted upon. We are a meeting of world and self. Both world and self are transformed in the meeting.
Each person is a spacious opening where the world can be present. We are like a room with many windows and doors where the world can take place in us and be appreciated and altered by us. No two worlds are alike for we all have our ways and talents for creating our worlds. We could turn the noun ‘world’ into a verb and say we are ‘worlding’, fashioning our experience and interpretation of the world.
A living person is an opportunity for the world to show itself, to be both received as is and changed to what could be. Each one of us receives from and gives to the world. Each one of us is in some way worlding.
When Dasein (a person) dies, the process of ‘worlding’ stops. No longer is the person able to actively form their world. Upon death the person changes from an dynamic process to an inert object. The person can no longer act but is now acted upon. The play-space identified as this particular person, this self is shut down and shut up. The person is finished and no longer able to finish his or her relationship to the world. The Dasein is closed and the person’s life story is what he or she accomplished when the life was open.
Each one of us contributes to the future of the world. So, while we are alive, may we be open to the world in all of its dimensions, not walling the world out but welcoming the world in, repairing what causes pain and suffering, celebrating what brings beauty and joy.