Der Tod

Why is the death of a person always a kind of scandal? Why does this completely normal event evoke as much curiosity as horror in those who witness it? How is it that we have not yet become accustomed to this natural yet always random occurrence? Why are we every time a living being dies so astonished, as if it were happening for the first time? These are the questions posed by the great French philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch in his philosophical masterpiece, which is finally being published in German. This work encapsulates and synthesizes the guiding principles of his entire oeuvre. In each of his books, he has sought to capture the extreme case, the extreme situation, and to find concepts for it. Because at the point where humanity touches these boundaries, it is exposed to the utmost human experience, an experience in which the mystery, the unspeakable, lies.