Dasein

''Dasein'' () (sometimes spelled as Da-sein) is the German word for 'existence'. It is a fundamental concept in the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger uses the expression ''Dasein'' to refer to the experience of being that is peculiar to human beings. Thus it is a form of being that is aware of and must confront such issues as personhood, mortality and the dilemma or paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself.

Heidegger's reinterpretation

In German, ''Dasein'' is the vernacular term for "existence", as in "I am pleased with my existence" (''Ich bin mit meinem Dasein zufrieden''). The term was used by several philosophers before Heidegger, most notably Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, with the meaning of "determined being" (''bestimmtes Sein''), ''The union of Being and Nothing'' (''Quality''). It is derived from ''da-sein'', which literally means "being-there"/"there-being"J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., ''The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism'' (1995) p. 70—though Heidegger was adamant that this was an inappropriate translation of ''Dasein''.
Dasein for Heidegger can be a way of being involved with and caring for the immediate world in which one lives, while always remaining aware of the contingent element of that involvement, of the priority of the world to the self, and of the evolving nature of the self itself.

The opposite of this authentic self is everyday and inauthentic ''Dasein'', the forfeiture of one's individual meaning, destiny and lifespan, in favour of an (escapist) immersion in the public everyday world—the anonymous, identical world of the They and the Them.

In harmony with Nietzsche's critique of the subject, as something definable in terms of consciousness, Heidegger distinguished ''Dasein'' from everyday consciousness in order to emphasize the critical importance "Being" has for our understanding and interpretation of the world, and so on.

"This entity which each of us is himself…we shall denote by the term 'Dasein'" (Heidegger, trans. 1927/1962, p.27).Heidegger, M. (1962). ''Being and Time'', Translated by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. London: S.C.M. Press.

" asein isthat entity which in its Being has this very Being as an issue…" (Heidegger, trans. 1927/1962, p.68).

Heidegger sought to use the concept of ''Dasein'' to uncover the primal nature of "Being" (''Sein''), agreeing with Nietzsche and Dilthey that ''Dasein'' is always a being engaged in the world: neither a subject, nor the objective world alone, but the coherence of Being-in-the-world. This ontological basis of Heidegger's work thus opposes the Cartesian "abstract agent" in favour of practical engagement with one's environment. ''Dasein'' is revealed by projection into, and engagement with, a personal world—a never-ending process of involvement with the world as mediated through the projects of the self.

Heidegger considered that language, everyday curiosity, logical systems, and common beliefs obscure ''Dasein's'' nature from itself. Authentic choice means turning away from the collective world of Them, to face ''Dasein'', one's individuality, one's own limited life-span, one's own being. Heidegger thus intended the concept of ''Dasein'' to provide a stepping stone in the questioning of what it means to ''be''—to have one's own being, one's own death, one's own truth.

Heidegger also saw the question of ''Dasein'' as extending beyond the realms disclosed by positive science or in the history of metaphysics. “Scientific research is not the only manner of Being which this entity can have, nor is it the one which lies closest. Moreover, ''Dasein'' itself has a special distinctiveness as compared with other entities; ..it is ontically distinguished by the fact that, in its very Being, that Being is an issue for it.” ''Being and Time'' stressed the ontological difference between entities and the being ''of'' entities: “Being is always the Being of an entity.” Establishing this difference is the general motif running through ''Being and Time''.

Some scholars disagree with this interpretation, however, arguing that for Heidegger ''Dasein'' denoted a structured awareness or an institutional "way of life". Others suggest that Heidegger's early insistence on the ontological priority of ''Dasein'' was muted in his post-war writings.

Origin and inspiration

Some have argued for an origin of ''Dasein'' in Chinese philosophy and Japanese philosophy: according to Tomonobu Imamichi, Heidegger's concept of ''Dasein'' was inspired—although Heidegger remained silent on this—by Okakura Kakuzo's concept of ''das-in-der-Welt-sein'' (being in the world) expressed in '' The Book of Tea'' to describe Zhuangzi's Taoist philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offered to Heidegger in 1919, after having followed lessons with him the year before.Tomonubu Imamichi, ''In Search of Wisdom. One Philosopher's Journey'', Tokyo, International House of Japan, 2004 (quoted by Anne Fagot-Largeault at he
lesson
at the College of France of 7 December 2006). Parallel concepts are also found in Indian philosophy and in Native American philosophies.

Karl Jaspers' ''Dasein'' and ''Existenz''

For Karl Jaspers, the term ''Dasein'' meant existence in its most minimal sense, the realm of objectivity and science, in opposition to what Jaspers called "''Existenz''", the realm of authentic being. Due to the drastically different use of the term ''Dasein'' between the two philosophers, there is often some confusion in students who begin with either Heidegger or Jaspers and subsequently study the other.

In ''Philosophy'' (3 vols, 1932), Jaspers gave his view of the history of philosophy and introduced his major themes. Beginning with modern science and empiricism, Jaspers points out that as we question reality, we confront borders that an empirical (or scientific) method can simply not transcend. At this point, the individual faces a choice: sink into despair and resignation, or take a leap of faith toward what Jaspers calls "Transcendence". In making this leap, individuals confront their own limitless freedom, which Jaspers calls ''Existenz'', and can finally experience authentic existence.

Other applications

Eero Tarasti considered ''Dasein'' very important in ''Existential Semiotics''. In Tarasti's view the term ''Dasein'' has been given a “broader” meaning, has stopped meaning the condition of an individual being flung into the world, having instead come to signify an “existential phase” with the sociohistoric characteristics from which signs extensively emerge.

From this point of view, transcendence is the desire to surpass realist acceptance of the world as it is and to move towards a political, ethical and planned reality of subjectivity in semiotic relations with the world.

Jacques Lacan turned in the 1950s to Heidegger's ''Dasein'' for his characterisation of the psychoanalyst as being-for-death (''être-pour-la-mort''). Similarly, he saw the analyst as searching for authentic speech, as opposed to “the subject who loses his meaning in the objectifications of discourse...hichwill give him the wherewithal to forget his own existence and his own death”.

Alfred Schütz distinguished between direct and indirect social experience, emphasising that in the latter, “My orientation is not toward the existence (''Dasein'') of a concrete individual Thou. It is not toward any subjective experiences now being constituted in all their uniqueness in another's mind”.

Aleksandr Dugin uses ''Dasein'' as the foundation for the Fourth Political Theory, emphasizing ''Dasein'' and its role in Russian society. He puts this in opposition to Western (more specifically American) society, which is far too individualistic with an inauthentic view of individuality.

Criticism

Theodor W. Adorno criticised Heidegger's concept of ''Dasein'' as an idealistic retreat from historical reality.

Richard Rorty considered that with ''Dasein'', Heidegger was creating a conservative myth of being, complicit with the Romantic elements of Nazism.

According to Julian Wolfreys, "There is no direct 'face'-to'face' relation for Heidegger; despite his invaluable critique of ontology, he still reduces the relation between Dasein and Dasein as mediated by the question and problematic of being."Wolfreys, J., ed., ''Introducing Criticism in the 21st Century'', 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015)
pp. 110–111

See also

References

External links

Martin Heidegger
(''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'')

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Ontology
Phenomenology
Existentialism
20th-century philosophy
Continental philosophy
German philosophy
Daseinsanalysis
Martin Heidegger