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Dasein as Situatedness
- to say that mans being is dasein is to say:
- man exists, is thrown into a situation which he himself did not create
- he does not simply exist but exists in something other than himself
- exist: thrown outside
- finds himself outside of himself
- surrounded by things other than himself
Man is being-in-the-world
- The world is constitutive of the being of man
- Man could not exist, could not be a man without the world
- Man could not realize himself without the world, without relating
with the world.
- Without man, world is not a world but only a brute fact.
- World as spatio-temporal dimension
- World as totality of being, integrated whole, not just discreet
facts, atomistic units.
- World of meaning and purpose
- World:
- World as common sphere of activity. E.g.: World of Sports
- World as the Socio-Historical Conditions:
- World as Mental Universe
This kind of self is a live in the world, with and for the other in alienation
from the central task of realizing and transcending himself.
2. Man as Being-Toward-Death
- Death is what happens to mans being (dasein)
- As such, death has to be understood in the fundamental structure of mans
being (dasein) which consists of the organic unity of existentiality, facticity
and falllenness. As organic unity of mans being, we call them as CARE.
a. Existentiality: Death as the Utmost Possibility
i. it is the utmost possibility among the many possibilities of man
- man has many possibilities; one of these possibilities is death
- but death is not like any other possibilities of man
- it is the utmost possibility
- it is the upper limit, uttermost limit of what he may be in the future
- the ultimate not yet, possibility
- possibility of his absolute impossibility, of his no longer being
possible, his no longer able to be there, of being-there
- in short, is the possibility of the end of his dasein: of his being-in-theworld; it is the possibility of his not-being, of ceasing to be.
ii. This utmost possibility is not something that man can outstrip, outrun
- inevitable, invincible possibility of all men and women
- a possibility that will necessarily be realized in all men and women
- a possibility that no man can escape.
iii. This utmost possibility is something disclosed to man
- man, is the only being whose possibility of his absolute impossibility is
disclosed
- he can know, be aware, be conscious of his utmost possibility
- When the utmost possibility is disclosed to me, I experience dread,
angst
- Fear: definite object; I fear this or that.
- Dread: no definite object, I fear my non-being, my nothingness
- He also can make decision as to what attitude he can take with regards
to his utmost possibility
iv. In death, man may not arrive at his fulfillment
- While he still exists, man lacks wholeness, totality, he is not yet
complete, finished because there are always the not yet, the possibilities,
project that are still to be realized, that can be realized. Nevertheless, the
wholeness, integrity is something accessible to him now as a possibility
to be realized but not a something already realized.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to be before I sleep,
And Miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost.
- The lack of totality comes to an end with death
- In death, man can attain the wholeness, integrity, totality; he will be
complete, finished, fully realized since there will be no more
possibilities, not yet, projects that are still to be realized and can be
realized after death.
- Only in death, man could consider himself as finished, complete, in
the totality, wholeness of his possibilities.
- Nevertheless, at the end of my dasein (in death), I may or may not arrive
the fulfillment, complete realization of my being.
- Difference between the ripeness of fruit and the death of man:
- With the fruit, the ripeness is the fulfillment of its being.
- With man, his death may or may not be the fulfillment of its being.
- What is unfortunate according to Heidegger is that so little is it the case
that Dasein comes to its ripeness only with death, that Dasein may will
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have passed its ripeness before the end. For the most part, Dasein ends
in unfillment.
b. Facticity: Death as already present, as given, as the possibility already
immediately contained in the present
- death of man (his end as man as dasein, his utmost possibility, the possibility
of his absolute impossibility) comes not like: we come at the end of a road,
coming of a storm, car or arrival of a friend. In what ways are they unlike,
different:
1. Coming of the storm, arrival of a end, coming at the end of the road are
totally outside of the present, of the now.
- There is some distance, remoteness between these future events
and the present.
- as long a friend is still coming/arriving, he is not yet present
- as long as the storm is still coming, one thing for sure the storm has
not yet arrived.
2. They are events that are external to me
- they are possibilities that lie outside of myself, my existence though
related to me.
- Unlike coming of the storm, arrival of a end, coming at the end of the road,
death of man is
1. A possibility already contained in the present
- death is not a possibility that is remote/distant from my present, from
what is now.
- As long as man lives, he is already old enough to die. I could die in
any second, in any millisecond.
- The immediacy of the possibility in the present is far immediate than
any immediate impending external event.
- I could die now, at this very moment, at this very instance.
2. Death is not a possibility external to me; the utmost possibility is my
ownmost possibility
- Death is the very possibility of my existence, inherent possibility and
dynamism of my existence. I die because of me, my existence.
- It is not a possibility dependent, proceeding from something external:
I die because of others.
- Death is not what others do to you; death is what happens to you, in
you.
- My existence is a being-toward-death.
c. Fallenness: Falling Away from this very dynamism and structure of my beingtoward-death
- Forfeiture of, fallenness from his task fully realizing, completely fulfilling
himself in death.
- Engrossed with everyday concern and absorbed with his they-self, he
becomes ignorant of his utmost possibility or/and flees away from his utmost
possibility
3. Two Modes of being-toward-death
a. Inauthentic Mode:
- Man does not authentically live my existence as being-toward death when he
escapes/falls from his Utmost and Ownmost Possibility, from his own death.
How does he escape? When he sees and lives as if death were:
i. Something that will not inevitably happen to me.
- He denies his utmost and ownmost possibility of his absolute
impossibility.
- He denies and does not want to face that there is a possibility that he
will absolutely cease to be.
b. Authentic Mode:
- How does man as dasein live authentically his being-toward-death:
i.
Face the possibility of his death as his own utmost and ownmost possibility
of as already present and inevitable possibility
- He never tries to escape from, deny, conceal his utmost possibility of his
absolute possibility
- This utmost possibility is his; death is something what will inevitably
happen to him
- Death as already present, that he will/can die at any moment, at this very
moment.