In the twentieth century, the topic of death plays an important role for some philosophers. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger places the understanding of one's death as a turning point in his philosophy. Referencing Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych as an example, Heidegger argues that most people go through life in avoidance of the reality of death. Heidegger believes that by "anticipating" death one can recover an "authentic" way of being. Much of Heidegger's philosophy provides an account of what goes on in The Death of Ivan Ilych, but there is a real difficulty for Heidegger to explain the end of the novella. In the work of the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, a contemporary of Heidegger, one finds a different understanding of death. Levinas argues that death reveals the importance not of recovering oneself but, rather, the importance of others. The work of Levinas stands in direct opposition to Heidegger's and this is particularly evident in how each philosopher approaches the topic of death. By first examining how philosophy has historically understood death, this paper will then turn to how both of these philosopher's understand of death, we then be able to turn and examine how Heidegger and Levinas' philosophies relate to the characters and situations in Tolstoy's novella. By the end of this paper, it will be shown that Levinas gives the more complete account of death. It is Levinas that is able to provide a not only a philosophical attestation of the final chapter of The Death of Ivan Ilych, but also an answer to Tolstoy's question of what meaning can be established in the face of death.
