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Philosopher To Explore Death-Anxiety, Health Care

Dec. 2, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt

 

Florida Gulf Coast University professor of philosophy Kevin Aho will share his thoughts on German philiosopher Martin Heidegger’s ideas on death and their applicability to what he’s seeing in the health care field during a presentation on Thursday (Dec. 4).

“Heidegger, Existential Death, and the Healing Professions” will begin at 4 p.m. in College of Humanities and Social Sciences Building Room 110.

The discussion will examine the implications of Heidegger's book “Being and Time” and its influential account of death-anxiety in the canon of existentialism, according to Aho.

Aho argues that while death is often misinterpreted as the ultimate and final collapse of worldly meaning that occurs at the end of one's life, the idea of death—as world collapse—can occur throughout one’s life, and this is precisely why it is so terrifying.

“For Heidegger, we are structured in such a way that it is possible to live through and experience our own death,” Aho has said. “This account creates special problems for health professionals because death-anxiety is not a discrete medical condition that can be controlled or eradicated, but a condition of being human that continually reminds us of our vulnerability.”

West Gurley, assistant professor of philosophy at SHSU and host of Aho’s presentation, said this “terrifying death” can be seen through conditions such as Alzheimer’s, “the reduction through torture of our humanity and dignity, and even the kind of existential breakdown we often hear about where nothing makes sense any longer.

“If we could understand something about the structure of our fears around these sorts of things, we could perhaps live to better purpose than we do when we allow these fears to motivate us blindly,” Gurley said.

Aho has taught at the University of South Florida since 2004. He is currently completing a semester as a visiting scholar in medical humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

He earned his doctorate from the Florida Gulf Coast University, his master’s degree from the University of Utah and his bachelor’s degree from Idaho State University.

Within his areas of research interest include existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of psychiatry and medicine, Aho has published four books: “Existentialism: An Introduction,” “Heidegger’s Neglect of the Body,” “Body Matters: A Phenomenology of Sickness, Disease, and Illness,” and “Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground.”

“He is a very engaging speaker and one whom I believe will have things to say of interest to folks in psychology and health sciences,” Gurley said.

 

 

 

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