If, then, death is a manifestation of Negativity in Men (or more exactly, a manifestation of Man's Negativity), it is a transformation of his real being into ideal concept. It is because he is mortal that Man can conceive (begreifen) of himself as he is in reality – that is, precisely as mortal: in contradistinction to animals, he thinks of himself as mortal, and therefore he thinks of his own death. Hence he can "transcend" it, if you please, and situate himself somehow beyond it; but he does this in the only way in which one can "go beyond" given-Being without sinking into pure Nothingness, namely in and by thought.

Alexandre Kojève, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel (Cornell University Press, 1980) p. 254