Death and the Philosophy of our Time / La mort en philosophie contemporaine

A small number of speakers, who have extensively dealt with the philosophical significance of death as writers or teachers, will gather for a day of work-in-progress and philosophical collaboration.

If we make a problem of 'life', and then just occasionally have regard for death too, our view is too short-sighted.

—Martin HEIDEGGER, Being and Time, § 63

The question of death is as old as philosophy itself. Intertwined, the two have undergone endless transformations throughout the history of mankind over the millennia. Not until recently, however, have the major philosophical concepts, in terms of which we think of ourselves, been defined to take our mortality fully into account. The profound differences between these concepts have been brought to light at the same time. Who are we, the mortals, then? The beings who are, first of all, alive and who perpetually oppose themselves to the perpetually evolving menace of the interruption of their lives – or rather the beings who exist and who project themselves, in one way or another, upon the always indeterminate and yet certain possibility of their non-existence? – Or perhaps, the mortal subjects, fragile and passionate, ever redefining themselves and never complete? Do these notions exclude one another, or are they concurrent? If so, in which way and to which extent? And what is it to be a mortal as the 21st century slowly unfolds and the world which we inhabit becomes increasingly mortal too? Death, deemed inconceivable and unthinkable by various important thinkers, keeps provoking our thought.

Programme

Mercredi 14 décembre 2022, 14h-19h

14h00-14h15 : Frédéric Worms (directeur de l’ENS) Mots d’accueil, introduction

14h15-15h15 : Taylor Carman (Barnard College, Columbia University) « Heidegger on Death, Dying, and Being Dead »

15h15-16h15 : Ondra Kvapil (ENS-PSL) « Death That Matters: Sartre vs. Epicurus »

16h15-16h35 Pause-café

16h35-17h35 : Christina Howells (Wadham College, University of Oxford) « Mortality : qui perd gagne »

17h35-18h35 : Frédéric Worms (ENS-PSL) « The Opposition between Life and Death as the Ultimate Principle of Contemporary Philosophy »

Chaque présentation dure entre 30 et 40 minutes environ. Elle sera suivie d’une discussion entre 20 et 25 minutes.