We all will die. Quite simple? Rather very complicated. What is meant when someone uses the word "death" becomes elusive as soon as one tries to grasp it more closely. What the fact of finitude means for the context of one's own life is one of the great questions of Western thought. And which discipline is scientifically responsible? Death belongs everywhere and nowhere. This introduction surveys the history of theories about death. The focus is on philosophical reflections on death from antiquity to the present. Should we fear it? What significance does it have? What is it, anyway? A question that runs through all the chapters of the book is that of the traces of a politics of death. Such traces can be found not only in modern philosophy.