A key tenet of the existentialist school of philosophy is that accepting death is essential to fully live life. Martin Heidegger said: “If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life — and only then will I be free to become myself.” For Heidegger, accepting the briefness of existence and the reality of death is essential to living an authentic life. We need a sense of angst, or dread, about what awaits us in order to properly engage with the realities of life.

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