Heidegger’s position of Dasein is the most appealing because he deviates from the standard philosophical-analytic view by explaining our experience. It is very interesting how he has distinguished his ontological analysis from the scientific endeavor of the
“totality of fundamentally coherent true propositions.” (Heidegger 117)
The elements of dasein’s facticity, being conscious or thrown into the present moment of the world, and existenz, the possibilities for our personal choice, is enlightening as it describes our experience. (Solomon 117)
No other philosopher communicates fundamental properties of our experience in such a way since Kant as Heidegger does. No one really addressed the nature of ‘being’ in such depth and accuracy as up to the point of heidegger. It is important because we use the term ‘being’ in our classification of ‘human being,’ but everyone basically does not know the meaning of the word.
Heidegger defines Dasein as a being distinct from other beings in that it is concerned about the nature of its being. (117) We do not simply ‘exist’ but contemplate the nature of our existence. He states,
“Understanding of being is itself a determination of being of Dasein.” (Heidegger 118)
He defines the nature of our being or the essence of being relative to the specific instance the being is experiencing as its own which he calls Dasein.
Dasein’s understanding of itself is in terms of its existence of possibilities: either be itself or not be itself. Heidegger states,
“Da-sein has either chosen these possibilities itself, stumbled upon them, or in each instance already grown up in them.” (118)
The manner of our existence as dasein is relative to seizing or neglecting our possibilities. (118) He calls the understanding of questioning our own existence, through existence itself, ‘existentiell.’ Our ontology, the study of being, is something that is done as an existential analysis of Dasein. (118)
Heidegger observes and communicates in writing the individualistic and universal nature of our experience of being. This being that we are is something that is always ours. Dasein’s essence is in its existence or simply that it is existing. (119) Dasein is its own possibility in its ability to choose within the moment of being-there. (120) Dasein can determine the form of being from the spectrum of possibilities it is confronted with. Heidegger states,
“Dasein always defined itself in terms of a possibility which it is and somehow understands in its being.” (120)
My experience of dasein is determined by the fact that the current experience i am having, my being-there, is always my experience.
‘Who is Dasein?’ is the being I am, as Heidegger states,
“that an I is always this being, and not others. The who is answered in terms of the I itself, the ‘subject,’ the ‘self.’” (121)
Dasein as the who in my experience, is constant even though my behaviour and experiences change over time. Dasein is the common denominator in all my experience that is essentially me distinct from all others as the only one having ‘this’ experience.
Heidegger’s ‘being-in-the-world’ is part of the existence and experience of dasein. The other’s are part of the experience of ‘being there’ that defines the existence of dasein. The world we experience is not an isolated place but a world with others, as Heidegger states,
“the world is always already the one that I share with the others.” (123)
The others cast limitations on the possibilities of Dasein. (124)
A limitation is the public ‘they’ that the other amalgamates into that reduces one into an averageness. This averageness determines what is allowed or not by creating a “leveling down of all possibilities of being’. (Heidegger 125) The they-self dictates interpretation of the world and dasein's being-in-the-world. Heidegger states,
“I am not in the sense of my own self, but I am the other in the mode of the they.” (127)
Heidegger talks about ‘falling’ as a way to describe being lost in the public they-self. He states,
“Falling prey to the ‘world’ means being absorbed.” (Heidegger 127)
He discusses inauthenticity as a form of being-in-the-world where Dasein is completely consumed by the world of the they-self. (127) There is a problem of tranquilization from the they-self and a constant temptation of falling prey to the they-self. Heidegger states,
“Entangled being-in-the-world is not only tempting and tranquilizing, it is at the same time alienating.” (129)
The alienation Dasein experiences from the they-self reduces its authenticity and possibility. (130)
References
Heidegger, Martin. Existentialism, edited by Robert C. Solomon, Oxford, 2005.
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