This text tries to reconstruct a debate concerning the philosophical status of the relation between man and animal. The author outlined the conception proposed by Martin Heidegger and then cited its critical presentations by Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben. Their deconstruction of the German philosopher's discourse comprises a radical attempt at severing links with the anthropocentric tradition of philosophy. The ultimate objective of the reflections pursued in the essay is, however, not yet another critique of metaphysics, but saving man from the desperate gesture of enrooting the specificity of his existence in a privileged relation with death. In this manner, man is supposed to not only come closer to others but also to distance himself from death.