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"Dasein" (; ) is a term in the philosophy of
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
. Adopted from the ordinary German word meaning "existence", Heidegger used it to refer to the mode of
being Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one do ...
that he believed is particular to human beings. A being that is aware of and must confront such issues as
personhood Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a legal person (ei ...
, mortality, and the dilemma or paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself.


Meaning

In German, ''Dasein'' is the vernacular term for "existence". It is derived from ''da-sein'', which literally means "being-there" or "there-being".J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., ''The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism'' (1995) p. 70 In a philosophical context, it was first used by Leibniz and Wolff in the 17th century, as well as by Kant and
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
in the 18th and 19th; however, Heidegger's later association of the word with human existence was uncommon and not of special philosophical significance during this period. Dasein for Heidegger is a mode 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 consciousness in order to emphasize the way that "Being" shapes our entire understanding and interpretation of the world.
"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 ''Being and Time'' () is the 1927 ''magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other fields. Though controv ...
'', Translated by
John Macquarrie John Macquarrie (1919–2007) was a Scottish-born theology, theologian, philosophy, philosopher and Anglican priest. He was the author of ''Principles of Christian Theology'' (1966) and ''Jesus Christ in Modern Thought'' (1991). Timothy Bradshaw ...
& 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 Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one do ...
" (''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 system A formal system is an abstract structure and formalization of an axiomatic system used for deducing, using rules of inference, theorems from axioms. In 1921, David Hilbert proposed to use formal systems as the foundation of knowledge in math ...
s, 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 Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
. "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 ''Being and Time'' () is the 1927 ''magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other fields. Though controv ...
'' 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 Chinese philosophy (Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 中国哲学; Traditional Chinese characters, traditional Chinese: 中國哲學) refers to the philosophical traditions that originated and developed within the historical ...
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 Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...
philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offered to Heidegger in 1919, after having followed lessons with him the year before. Parallel concepts are also found in
Indian philosophy Indian philosophy consists of philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. The philosophies are often called darśana meaning, "to see" or "looking at." Ānvīkṣikī means “critical inquiry” or “investigation." Unlike darśan ...
and in Native American lore.


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 Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
turned in the 1950s to Heidegger's Dasein for his characterisation of the
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
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 Alfred Schutz (; born Alfred Schütz, ; 1899–1959) was an Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist whose work bridged sociological and phenomenological traditions. Schutz is gradually being recognized as one of the 20th century's leadin ...
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.


Rhetorical use in the German election of November 1933

Heidegger used the concept of Dasein to discuss
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
ideology, and to advocate support for
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. In the context of the German election of November 1933 – in which the electorate was presented with a single Nazi-approved list of candidates – he said the following:
The German people has been summoned by the Führer to vote; the Führer, however, is asking nothing from the people; rather, he ''is giving'' the people the possibility of making, directly, the highest free decision of all: whether itthe entire peoplewants its own existence (''Dasein''), or whether it does not want it. ..On November 12, the German people as a whole will choose ''its'' future, and this future is bound to the Führer. ..There are not separate foreign and domestic policies. There is only one will to the full existence (''Dasein'') of the State. The Führer has awakened this will in the entire people and has welded it into a single resolve.


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 Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
. 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."


See also


References


External links


Martin Heidegger
(''
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') is a freely available online philosophy resource published and maintained by Stanford University, encompassing both an online encyclopedia of philosophy and peer-reviewed original publication ...
'') {{authority control Ontology Phenomenology Existentialist concepts 20th century in philosophy German philosophy Philosophy of Martin Heidegger