Controversial thinker and philosopher, Martin Heidegger, was born in Messkirch in September 1889. Heidegger was interested in the priesthood and studied theology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg in 1909. He began teaching at the University of Marburg in 1922 and published his first important work, Being and Time, in 1927. He was implicated as a Nazi sympathiser during World War II and prohibited from teaching by the Allies.
Heidegger describes human existence as a “thrownness into being” which translates as "Geworfenheit ins Dasein." This “thrownness into being” indicates that Dasein is already there in the world. “This implies, not merely that man is constitutionally unable to establish relationships with things or persons outside himself; but also that it is impossible to determine theoretically the origin and goal of human existence,” says George Kukaks in his essay, "The Ideology of Modernism." Thus, man is isolated within his own experience; he has no history, and no reality beyond self.
Dasein's temporal determinateness
The term “Dasein” means “difference,” in the sense, as explained by Peter Sedgwick in "Two Ontologies." Sedgewick says: “It recognizes the fact that its own Being can be an issue for it. Dasein has an existence to which it relates and this existence is its Being.” Therefore, man is distinct from other entities such as dogs or stones, which are not conscious of themselves.
Dasein understands entities other than itself, for example the above dogs and stones. This provides a basis for understanding the ways in which Dasein relates to temporality. We understand ourselves through our reflections upon the world in which we live. “You cannot “see” what allows you to engage in seeing in the first place,” says Sedgewick. The difficulty is that there is no way of separating Dasein from the concept of being in time. This Heidegger calls Dasein’s “temporal determinateness.” It is impossible for us to understand ourselves as anything but historical beings; we simply have to accept that we exist in time and must consider ourselves as what we were as well as what we are.
We can only understand ourselves in time
The negative side of this is that we are aware we shall eventually die and all our actions are performed only to distract ourselves from his inevitability. That it is necessary for us to interpret ourselves on the basis of our understanding of our past imposes a tradition upon us. Because we are in time, we can only understand ourselves in time, for our past precedes us. Therefore, “Being and time are conjoined,” says Sedgewick.
This argument leads to the question of whether time manifests itself as the horizon of Being, which, in turn, suggests that there can be no beginning and no end to the argument: “Interpretation is essentially horizontal and so incapable of attaining absolute completion.” Stephen Mulhall, in his book Heidegger and Being and Time, points out that, although it might be true that interpretation might never be absolutely completed: “The fact that a text ends by posing further questions does not entail that it is essentially incomplete.” (Heidegger’s use of the adjective “absolutely” is, in a sense, superfluous since, if something is “complete” it does not need a qualifying adjective.)
A question with no criteria for an answer
Richard Rorty, in his essay, "Heidegger, Contingency and Pragmatism," says: “I think that Heidegger goes on and on about “the question of Being” without ever answering it, because Being is a good example of something we have no criteria for answering questions about.”
Heidegger died in May 1976 with a stain on his character, yet the legacy of his influential and distinguished intellectual career remains with us today.
Sources:
- Kukaks, George, “The Ideology of Modernism” Literature in the Modern World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990.
- Sedgewick, Peter, “Two Ontologies,” Descartes to Derrida, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., Oxford, 2001.
- Mulhall, Stephen, Heidegger and Being and Time, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook, London and New York, 1996.
- Rorty, Richard, “Heidegger, Contingency and Pragmatism,” Essays on Heidegger and Others, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991.
Janet Cameron - MA. Cert.Ed. is a retired university lecturer and author of twelve books, women's short fiction and a magazine column.
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