Introduction
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is a contemporary German Philosopher of the 20
the century.
Noted for being a gifted thinker, Heidegger has contributed to more than one field, namely
phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, political theory, psychology and theology. ‘Being
and Time’, his first work is acknowledged as the most important of all his works. It is in Being
and Time that Heidegger introduces the term Dasein to explain ‘being’. Heidegger adopts a
non-metaphysical, coherent way of thinking to explain ‘being’ without reducing it to a scientific
phenomenon.
Reading Heidegger’s philosophy
Heidegger makes use of certain philosophical terms in a non-conventional sense. His philosophy
is best understood when the reader personally relates to the description.
Dasein
Heidegger opines that human existence is grounded in our always finding ourselves in a ‘world’.
He emphasizes that human existence is inseparable from a context, which in this case is called a
‘world’. This is a new insight, considering the rationalists’ vantage point. For instance, for
Descartes, only the ‘mind’ exists. Existence is associated with the ability to think. Descartes’
‘mind’ will think and feel, even if the entire world were just an illusion. But Heidegger argues
that having thoughts and feelings is only possible when humans are involved with a ‘world’.
Humans are a kind of entity called ‘Dasein’. ‘Dasein’ literally means ‘existence’ or ‘being there’
(‘Da’ stands for ‘there’ and ‘Sein’ stands for ‘being’) in German. The reason for this choice of
word ‘Dasein,’ is to emphasize ‘being-in-the-world’ as opposed to just ‘being’. The ‘there’ in
‘Dasein’ is the place (the world) where the ‘Dasein’ learns to co...
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...fficient intuition to display its
appropriateness in the world. For example, using a knife to sharpen a pencil would not be
considered appropriate.
The relation this world as described above holds with Dasein, is in that the world provides
Dasein with potential ways to be. The world lets an entity to be encountered, so that it can play
a role in the world.
In conclusion, the world is where the Dasein identifies a ‘for-the-sake-of-which’ it lives, where it
shapes its being continuously, where its actions make intuitive sense, and where it can finally
reach its being.
References
1. How to Read Heidegger, Mark Wrathall
2. Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson
3. Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Martin Heidegger
(http://www.iep.utm.edu/heidegge/)
4. Wikipedia, Martin Heidegger
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_heidegger)
... middle of paper ... ... Everything is basically relative and is what each separate person perceives it to be, just like the answers to the infinite questions posed by The Turn of the Screw. Works Cited Burrows, Stuart.
If death is really real, based upon the animistic quality of our five physical senses, then how do we know that we are truly alive and breathing, not in a dream? It has been proposed that people aware the existence of surroundings majorly rely on their five senses, which may cause illusions. The ethereal, yet grounded, theory of existentialism provides the landscape for a more positively identified pathway which reaches across the separation exists among humans.
Husserl uses the lifeworld as a means to explain the rational structures underlying transcendental intersubjectivity; the structures are initially unconscious to us (Beyer). Act ascription is ultimately based upon and epistemically justified by the lifeworld. The lifeworld is the unthematic sociolcultural world shaped by normativity, historicity and tradition (Zahavi 133). The lifeworld is shaped by certain morphological structures that are historically mediated by communities; the lifeworld would be chaotic otherwise. (Zahavi 130). The lifeworld that is shared by a single community of subjects is known as the homeworld (Beyer). Subjects from different lifeworlds can share a general a priori framework; this allows for translation between the lifeworlds (Beyer). The subjective-relative lifeworld exists as the condition of possibility for our scientific and epistemological claims, yet is rooted in practical experience (Franck
Take a minute to relax. Enjoy the lightness, or surprising heaviness, of the paper, the crispness of the ink, and the regularity of the type. There are over four pages in this stack, brimming with the answer to some question, proposed about subjects that are necessarily personal in nature. All of philosophy is personal, but some philosophers may deny this. Discussed here are philosophers that would not be that silly. Two proto-existentialists, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, were keen observers of humanity, and yet their conclusions were different enough to seem contradictory. Discussed here will be Nietzsche’s “preparatory human being” and Kierkegaard’s “knight of faith”. Both are archetypal human beings that exist in accordance to their respective philosopher’s values, and as such, each serve different functions and have different qualities. Both serve the same purpose, though. The free spirit and the knight of faith are both human beings that brace themselves against the implosion of the god concept in western society.
In lecture we learned that for Kierkegaard, modern life had become something that was ruled by the monotonous act of knowing rather than doing, as opposed to making choices that represent the individualistic beliefs and passions of the being. When viewing how I live my own subjective life through the lens of Kierkegaard’s thinking, I will focus on themes that are central to existential thought such as: autonomy, genuineness, becoming rather than being, the passions that drive me, despair, uncertainty, the balance between objectivity and subjectivity, and finally understand if I truly exist, therefore I am.
s the notion that humans have introspective knowledge as a given. His interest in the matter arises when one attempts to "explain how we come by such knowledge and what gives us this first-person authority"(p. 40)
Thus, existentialism’s first movement is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.
It is through realizing the motions of our souls with those of the universe at large that we accomplish our goal of living happily and virtuously. The discourse concludes with an account of the generation of women and non-human animals.
Dreyfus, Hubert L. (1991) Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press.
ABSTRACT: Ours is not the first time philosophers have looked to art for examples to illustrate their arguments. One example would be Kierkegaard, who turned to Mozart's operas in an attempt to expose what he called the aesthetic realm of existence. I hold that if Kierkegaard lived today, he would consider the main character of Nikita Mikhalkov's Dark Eyes (1987) as a prototype of the aesthetic way of existence. In order to support my thesis, I first discuss Kierkegaard's theory of the three spheres of existence. I look especially at what he considers to be the main feature of the aesthetic stage, as well as the figure of Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera. Second, I will look at the character of Romano Podroni in Dark Eyes. Finally, I will point out what makes these two characters prototypes of the aesthetic existence: the inhuman way in which they live the temporal dimension of human existence.
...ed in it's course is fixed by the nature of the being's life. For the human being's life, what is inevitable, inescapable, and predetermined in its course is that for one's own life to exist it must be sustained and generated by itself.
Throughout Beyond Nature and Culture Philipe Descola presents an ontological fourfold seeking to describe and account for the continuities and discontinuities experienced by humans and non humans. In other words, he lays out a new approach to making the empirical completely intelligible. Included in his model are what he calls the four modes of identification; naturalism, animism, totemism, and analogism. He distinguishes between these four modes of identification by describing whether the “interiorities” and “physicalities” of humans and non humans are similar or dissimilar to one another (interiority consisting in the universal belief that a being has characteristics that are internal to it or that take it as their source). Animism being an identification of similar interiorities, but dissimilar physicalities.
(6) Martin Heidegger in Marcuse's notes to seminar, "Heidegger, Einfuhrung in das akademische Studium. Sommer 1929" Herbert Marcuse Archiv of the Stadt- und Universit. tsbibliothek, Frankfurt, Catalog # 0013.01, p. 6.
But, “human persons have an ‘inner’ dimension that is just as important as the ‘outer’ embodiment” (Cortez, 71). The “inner” element cannot be wholly explained by the “outer” embodiment, but it does give rise to inimitable facets of the human life, such as human dignity and personal identity. The mind-body problem entails two theories, dualism and physicalism. Dualism contends that distinct mental and physical realms exist, and they both must be taken into account. Its counterpart (weak) physicalism views the human as being completely bodily and physical, encompassing no non-physical, or spiritual, substances.
An individual's Being is constantly changing throughout life, never reaching a set point. More specifically, May defines Being as an individual's pattern of potentialities. Anxiety arises when these potentialities grow harder to obtain or hidden from clear view. In modern society, man no longer holds his Sense of Being, but is looked at as a mechanism for others to succeed or save time or enjoy their libidinal satisfactions. "A man knows himself not as a man or self, but as a token seller in the subway, a grocer, a professor, a vice-president of AT&T, or by whatever his economic function may be." The point where Anxiety plays into Being is moreover in the state referred to as non-being. Non-being traditionally would be looked at as death, of which, even to this day, causes for much Anxiety. However, in today's society, non-being also refers to the state of not achieving or not meeting your potentialities. In light of this, people seek ways of avoiding any confrontation with non-being. "Perhaps the most ubiquitous and ever-present form of the failure to confront non-being in our day is in conformism, the tendency of the individual to be absorbed in the sea of collective responses and attitudes,,with the corresponding loss of his own awareness, potentialities, and whatever characterizes him as a unique and original being." The second Anxiety-plagued situation is that of Encounter with another individual. May sees encounters as a phenomenon where individuals take an extraordinary risk in forming trust bonds while determining the amount, if any, of self-disclosure the individual is willing to share.