Elena Bartolini

This paper examines the relationship between the prefiguration of death and the notion of care in Plato and Heidegger, starting from Pierre Hadot’s interpretation of ancient philosophy as a way of living shaped by spiritual exercises. While the meditation on death appears as a recurring philosophical exercise from Plato’s Phaedo to Heidegger’s Being and Time, both works also argue for care as a defining dimension of human existence. Socrates’ final exhortation, καὶ μὴ ἀμελήσητε, and Heidegger’s conception of Sorge as the fundamental structure of Dasein reveal a shared concern with finitude and temporality. Although Heidegger does not explicitly acknowledge Plato as a precursor of his analysis about being-toward-death and care, this paper shows that his conception of both these topics implicitly inherits essential aspects of Plato’s understanding of exercise of death and care, thus revealing a significant philosophical continuity.

Heidegger’s ontological reflection, throughout its development, focuses on some fundamental terms that are repeatedly elaborated and clarified by the author: λόγος is one of them. In fact, the German philosopher does not fail to tirelessly deal with this crucial concept of ancient philosophy, also for the repercussions it has on modern philosophy and on contemporary currents. On the other hand, the very term λόγος appears in one of the definitions that most characterize the human being from Aristotle onwards, i.e., ζῷον λόγον ἔχων, undergoing a stratification of meanings that gradually diverge more and more from the original. It is therefore possible to state that carefully following the development of the connotations provided by Heidegger on this topic represents to all intents and purposes a particularly profitable key to understanding the uniqueness of his thought. The Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event), precisely due to the particular nature of its written form and its philosophical scope, is a crucial point both in the context of Kehre and, consequently, for understanding how the λόγος as an event is a significant and relational manifestation of Being. If we want to better understand the revolutionary scope of this position, it will be essential to briefly present what Heidegger means by λόγος in the first years of his philosophical production and, subsequently, to trace within the Contributions the changes with respect to the previous period. Finally, by showing the ripest fruits of his philosophical reflection in which thought and ποίησις are placed in intimate connection, it will be possible to highlight the important repercussions on the relationship between every human being, his own existence and philosophical reflection.