HZT4UE Theory of Knowledge

UNIT 4: LANGUAGE
4.6 Heidegger (1!" 1"#6$
%&r'in Heidegger
In 1900, Edmund Husserl used the term
phenomenology in his book Logical Investigations
and noted that consciousness is usually directed toward
something. Husserl dedicated his book trying to
describe the structures o e!perience as they present
themsel"es to the mind.
Heidegger was Husserl#s student, and despite this early
and proound interest in Husserl$s work, Heidegger
began to de"elop his own phenomenological pro%ect in a direction that ultimately re%ected
some o the basic tenets o Husserlian phenomenology. Heidegger$s irst ma%or
publication, Being and Time &19'(), was dedicated to Husserl and earned him the *hair
o +hilosophy at ,ni"ersity o -reiburg on Husserl$s retirement in 19'..
Howe"er, /eing and 0ime was most emphatically ne"er intended by Heidegger to ollow
a de"elopment o strictly Husserlian phenomenology. -rom the outset, Heidegger
deines his pro%ect in Being and Time as an attempt to re"i"e the 1uestion o the meaning
o /eing, which has been concealed and ignored by the 2estern philosophical tradition
as represented by (l&'o &perect orms), )e*+&r'e* &cogito ergo sum &mind3body)), K&n'
&phenomena and noumena) and Husserl. 0he tradition has relied on an ontology 4a
theory o ob%ects and their ties5relationships 6 7r. 8.9 pri"ileging :substance,$ which, in
turn, has led to a :metaphysics o presence$ that, according to Heidegger, has resulted in
an unortunate mind5matter duality. He maintains that any eorts to understand :reality$
along that path are doomed rom the start.
0he ;anish philosopher <ierkegaard accepted the parado! o being deining itsel. =s a
scientist, Heidegger could not accept this parado!. =ccording to Heidegger, a concept
must be deined without using itsel as reerence. 0he diiculty o deinition was
conronted by deining >/eing> as a collection o concepts. 2ithout being something,
there is no e!istence.
=s with <ierkegaard &beore him) and ?artre &ater), Heidegger belie"ed the e!istence o
a physical body preceded the essence o sel. =t some point in the de"elopment process,
a being becomes aware that it e!ists. 0his pi"otal point in time is when essence begins to
orm@ the indi"idual decides to acknowledge and embrace an essence at this moment.
48itAthum noteB /ecause :e!istence precedes essence,$ we get the word :e!istentialism.$9
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/ecause 7an in the only known being in which essence and e!istence do not appear
simultaneously, 7an is a uni1ue creature on this planet. =ll things 7an creates ha"e
essence, or deinition, beore they e!ist. In other words, an indi"idual thinks about a
creation and its purpose beore the creation e!ists.
,sing a word that originally simply meant :e!istence$ in Derman, Heidegger plays on the
etymological root o Da-sein, or :being3there$ as way to understand /eing3in3general.
Heidegger claims that his ocus on ;asein is a strategic mo"e, designed only as a point o
entry into his philosophical anthropology on the nature o :human being.$ -or the early
Heidegger, /eing is accessible only through our practical engagement with a world
already understood. 0his world, or community, he calls the :Ene.$ -or Heidegger, each
person is constituted by the Ene or the community, instead o by some uni"ersal
synthetic apriori human character. -or each ;asein in a particular world, there are three
dierent ways o e!isting, or attitudes ;asein ha"e about the world.
0he undierentiated mode is when an indi"idual blindly accepts the e!istence that the
Ene &community) has gi"en them, not 1uestioning the meaning o their e!istence or
understanding that they ha"e been arbitrary thrown &geworfen) into a world not o their
own choosing.
0he inauthentic mode is when an indi"idual recogniAes the thrown3ness o their
e!istence, or decides to go against the lie that they were born into, they mo"e to become
their own person by taking on a dierent role in relation to the Ene or the community.
-or e!ample, a gay daughter o a conser"ati"e politician realiAes that she disagrees with
her ather$s belies and then mo"es to li"e the lie o an out3and3proud lesbian. ?he
re%ects the role that society has gi"en her, and takes on another role that, although
dierent, still e!ists as part o the Ene. =t this point, indi"iduals are capable o
recogniAing both their thrown3ness and the omnipresence o the Ene. In other words,
they realiAe that they ha"e been born into a particular role in community, but will still
e!ist in relation to some community &the Ene) regardless o what role they mo"e intoF
e"erything has already been deined by the Ene, and no li"es are uni1ue.
0his double realiAation produces an an!iety in ;asein, which Heidegger amously termed
angst &now an accepted English word), as they realiAe that their lie e!ists only in relation
to the Ene, and that they will one day pass into the Gothing &they will die). ,pon
realiAing this, ;asein can do one o two thingsB
I they cannot bear the possibility o the Gothing, they can mo"e into a state o allen3
ness, reusing to recogniAe the situation and mo"ing back into a role in the world o the
Ene. 0hey can mo"e back or stay in the inauthentic mode o e!istence.
Er, they can ace up to the Gothing, taking responsibility or the lie they lead and being
accountable or their actions. 0hey become what Heidegger calls a being3toward3death,
realiAing that as each ;asein is responsible or themsel"es, the aggregate o ;asein &the
Ene) is also responsible or its o"erall e!istence. 0hey begin to care or the world. 2hen
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a ;asein li"es as a being3toward3death and e!hibits care or its world, they are said to
e!ist in an authentic mode.
=lthough the greater part o this introduction has been written using the selections chosen
rom /eing and 0ime, it must be noted that the later Heidegger does not pri"ilege ;asein
to the same degree. =ter his essay :En the essence o truth$ &19C0), we ind undamental
ontology replaced by a history o /eing that emphasiAes the participation o human
beings in the :happening$ o /eing.
Hanguage, especially poetic language, emerges to play a crucial role as the :house o
/eing.$ ?uch works as Introduction to Metaphysics &19CI), :Hetter on Humanism$
&19JK) and On the Way to Language &19I1), to name a ew, remain ocused on the
1uestion o /eing, but de"elop this theme in a new way. /ecause language is a ma%or
orce in the creation and de"elopment o the Ene, and thereore /eing, in Heidegger we
see the conluence o phenomenology, e!istentialism and hermeneutics that has made his
impact particularly powerul in '0
th
*. *ontinental philosophy. Hence, Heidegger#s
1uote, 7an acts as though he were the shaper and master o language, while, in act,
language remains the master o him.
?ourcesB The Continental hilosophy !eader. Ed. Lichard <earney and 7ara Lainwater.
HondonB Loutledge, 199K. and Heidegger MhttpB55www.tameri.com5csw5e!ist5heideg.aspN.
,-e*'ion* on Heidegger:
1. 2hy was Heidegger dissatisied with the traditional ideas o /eing and whose
pre"ious ideas did he essentially re%ectO 2hat, according to Heidegger, was their
problem with their ideasO
!. 2hat is the parado! that Heidegger was unwilling to acceptO E!plain how5why it
operates as a parado!.
.. 2hat is the relationship between ;asein and the EneO
4. 2hat are the three components o ;aseinO
/. =n e!ample o a ;asien li"ing in an inauthentic mode has been pro"ided in the
reading. *onsider another e!ample rom your own e!perience.
6. How has Heidegger been important or both e!istential phenomenology and
hermeneutic phenomenologyO
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