ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of the book. Human existence is characterized by strivings of a great many kinds for knowledge and security, power and overcoming, pleasure and happiness, but the pursuit of meaning may be the most fundamental. A death that is ones own requires free decision not vacuous utilitarian preferences but an authentic response to the most ultimate given of human existence. A good death is not a happy one but a fitting end to a good life. This book discusses the modern denial of death, the history of death rituals, and the question of suicide not in order to provide an exhaustive theoretical account of any matters but in order to prepare the ground for the line of thinking. The book also discusses of Heidegger's conception of being-toward-death, considered to be the most important philosophical statement on death in the modern literature.
