Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Leidybos skyrius
    Tel. +370 5 2626851, +370 5 2613620 El. paštas leidyba@lma.lt
Filosofija. Sociologija / Philosophy. Sociology

ISSN 0235-7186
ISSN 2424-4546 (online)

2007 m. Nr. 3

The language of speaking about and reflecting on death: an analysis of L. Tolstoy’s story “The death of Ivan Ilyich”
Andrej SERGEEV

This paper is an attempt to interpret the phenomenon of death, at least in terms of its relevance to our understanding of life, using L. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” as a congenial starting point. It is an important attribute of death that it fundamentally defies analysis, and, with human consciousness blocking our access to anything that does so, we find ourselves unable to “admit” death into ourselves or identify ourselves with it. Hence our efforts to come to terms with the phenomenon of death by reducing it to a kind of semiotic form expressed in the accepted practices of mourning and burial. The inevitable clash between the phenomenon of death and that of Dasein, whose topos of opposition is being itself, results in an antinomy which can only be resolved by addressing the phenomenal essence of both as a means of looking beyond their mere contents, clearing thereby a space for thought that is normally occupied by consciousness. L. Tolstoy’s treatment of his character’s dying reveals the fundamental solitude of a human being in the face of the most crucial experiences of human existence, such as pain and death. The indefinite nature of such phenomena reveals the power of the impersonal, making one turn to oneself, to one’s very presence in the world (cf. the notion of Dasein), the most authentic way of doing which is turning to one’s childhood.
Compared with conversation concerning the situations of habitual life, the event of death gives a new direction to thinking, leaving no room for dialogue (with no common ground for communication) and creating a kind of conversation with oneself, which is thoroughly complete in itself. Death introduces a position of reflection that establishes a formal limit to the development of life and can properly be defined as a position of thinking. The event of death enables one to conceive life in its integrity. The topoi of life can be “cleared” of their contents and correlated to each other in their formal respect (i. e. that proper to life itself). Such a correlation is made possible by time, the time of the present, the time of life itself, which defies measurement and has no duration, and, for that reason, is perceived as fictitious, from the point of view of life’s ‘contents’. Thus, the event of death reveals itself as a ‘utopian’ and, at the same time, a theoretical point (topos), from which thinking unfolds itself. Such a position, which in fact is a metaphysical point of observation, enables one to consider what occurs in one’s life from a new perspective and to coin language forms that are connected with thinking rather than with consciousness. This perspective also enables one to think of time irrespective of the specific contents of life, for it lies beyond their boundaries.

Keywords: phenomenology, phenomenon, life, death, time, Dasein, language, consciousness, thinking, reflection

Numeriai:

2017 - T.28
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2016 - T.27
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2015 - T.26
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2014 - T.25
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2013 - T.24
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2012 - T.23
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2011 - T.22
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2010 - T.21
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2009 - T.20
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2008 - T.19
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2007 - T.18
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2006
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2005
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2004
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2003
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2002
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2001
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4