The Relationship between Death as My End and Its Outside: Connecting Sartre to Reproductive Biology via Heidegger

Abstract

Although philosophy and biology actively interact, the topic of death is not an evident intersection. The difficulty of establishing this topic in biology, a life science, reinforces the scholarly positioning regarding death as an inherently philosophical topic. To clarify the potential for meaningful interactions between these disciplines regarding this topic, this study first clarifies Heidegger’s conceptualization of death as a unity of certainty and indeterminateness. Second, it reframes Sartre’s criticism of Heidegger in terms of the outside, which expands the scope of the philosophy of death to enable a dialogue with biology. Building upon these clarifications, this study focuses on the biological classification of reproduction, demonstrating the potential relationship between Heidegger and reproductive biology. This consideration allows for the interpretation of the outside viewpoint on my death in Sartre’s argument as that of the child, my genuine other. Finally, this study highlights the philosophical significance of the contradiction that the end of life is a continuation of life, which reproductive biology unknowingly demonstrates. Overall, it reveals that an issue traditionally thought to separate science from philosophy is, in fact, a node of both, by elucidating the interdisciplinary nature of the classic existential topic—death.