The department of philosophy is delighted to welcome Dr. phil, Susanne Burri (University of Konstanz), who will give a self-contained talk at the Higher Seminar in practical philosophy titled:

In awe of death

One way in which many of us fear our deaths is by experiencing existential terror. We experience existential terror if we feel horrified at the thought that we will go out of existence. In this paper, I argue that existential terror is best conceptualised as a kind of negatively valenced awe, namely one that takes the future non-existence of the person who experiences the emotion as its object. I argue that existential terror, once it is understood in this way, is fitting: the cognitive content of the emotion corresponds to the facts. Those who experience existential terror rightly perceive of their future non-existence as vast, and they correctly judge that they are unable fully to grasp it. In addition, they appropriately conceptualise their future non-existence as excluding them.

Welcome!