Death and Self

Workshop “Death and Self”

July 2–3, 2025

Goethe University Frankfurt

Department of Philosophy

What is a self? What is death? Is death the end of our self? In our upcoming workshop “Death and Self”, we will explore the themes of death, selfhood, and their intricate relationship.

What constitutes a rational attitude toward our own death? Should death be considered a harm to ourselves, or only to those we leave behind? And how do our sense of self and our subjective experience shape our attitudes toward death?

These and related questions will be addressed in nine talks, each offering a distinct philosophical perspective on the topic.

The conference is hosted by the Institute of Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt and takes place as part of a research project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft(DFG) (German Research Foundation).

Workshop Program:

July 2

8:45 - 09:00 WELCOME

9:00 - 10:30 Dan Zahavi “Killing the Ego”

10:45 - 12:15 Maria Müller-Hornbach “Losing Ourselves in Death: Why It Isn't as Bad as We Thought”

12:15 - 13.45 BREAK

13:45 - 15:15 Mikel Burley “‘Dying to the Self’: Christian and Buddhist Perspectives”

15:30 - 17:00 Wolfgang Fasching  “The Whence and the Whither”

17:15 - 18:45 Nadine Mooren  “Death and the Second Person”

July 3

9:00 - 10:30 Gerson Reuter “My Death: The End of a World”

10:45 - 12:15 Marcus Willaschek “What Makes My Death Mine?”

12:15 - 14:00 BREAK

14:00 - 15:30 Natalja Deng  “Is Death Nothing to us? Perspectives from the Philosophy of Time”

16:00 - 17:30 Michael Cholbi “Estrangement from the Valuable: Toward a Comprehensive Account of Death’s Harms”

19:00 Institutskolloquium mit Dan Zahavi (“Being You - Or Not?”)

(not part of the workshop but everyone is cordially invited)

Participation is free, but we kindly ask you to register by emailing mariamueho@gmail.com.

Organized by Maria Müller-Hornbach and Marcus Willaschek