Thesis Abstract

Title:
PEERS TY SYSTEM Ecological Project:
A Re-thinking of Heidegger’s Building Dwelling Thinking

The Problem:
What are the arguments to show and manifest appropriation and parallelism of
the PEERS TY SYSTEM to the Building Dwelling Thinking?
The paper ventures to elaborate by answering the following sub-questions:
 What is the philosophy of Heidegger in his Building Dwelling Thinking?
 What is the PEERS TY SYSTEM ecological project?
 What are the pertinent implications of the PEERS TY SYSTEM to the Building
Dwelling Thinking?

Background:
The thesis is an appropriation of the PEERS TY SYSTEM into the Building
Dwelling Thinking of Martin Heidegger in relation to the prevailing ecological problem of
the times – Climate Change. The term PEERS TY comes from Pro-Environmental Act,
Earth Friendly Users, 5Rs and SB Way, Trees for Life and YOU Forest as these are
anthropocene and technological approach to nature and are essentially geared up to express
care and concern for the natural world – Mother Nature.
Building Dwelling Thinking is expanded from these thoughts of Heidegger; 1)
Building is really dwelling. 2) Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on the earth.
3) Building is dwelling, unfolds into the building that cultivates growing things and the
building that erects buildings.
The appropriation of the PEERS TY SYSTEM as an anthropocene and
technological approach founded on the existential thought ‘YOU is for the YOU’ as a
solution to climate change lies most effectively in number two that dwelling is the manner
in which mortals must act, relate, establish, propagate, care and nurture the earth. If the
PEERS TY is truly lived, then mortals are indeed dwellers and that “building is really
dwelling.” PEERS TY as a SYSTEM is an act of expression of the YOU. The YOU always
and must live the SYSTEM for doing it is for life emancipation for himself, for others and
for the rest of humanity. It is then established that doing the SYSTEM is a form of building,
building that necessitates the actual sense of dwelling.
Appropriating the PEERS TY SYSTEM:
The series of appropriating the PEERS TY into Heideggerian thought are sub-
divided into three categories; 1) Manifestations of Unity 2) YOU is for the YOU into
dwelling 3) PEERS TY into the Fourfold. Let me present this one by one.
1. Manifestations of Unity
First, Heidegger declares “The earth and its atmosphere become raw material” 1 as
“technological dominion spreads itself over the earth ever more quickly, ruthlessly, and
completely.” And Heidegger added, saying “The human being is not the lord of beings.
The human being is the shepherd of being.”
The SYSTEM runs in this particular thinking that it does not allow or recognize
that humans are the lords of creation. It enhances though that through the use of
environmental friendly technology, man affirms their identity being shepherd of creation.
The SYSTEM is a means to allow beings not to be transform to lord of beings but rather
remain as shepherds of being.
Second, Heidegger defines letting a being be as “Letting something essential unfold
in its provenance.” Although humans tend to think of letting something be as a passive
attitude of indifference, Heidegger stresses that letting be is not a matter of simply stepping
back and passively allowing beings to unfold. He states, “It lies outside the distinction
between activity and passivity... because it does not belong to the domain of the will.”
In this line, freedom is important for the SYSTEM to expand and advance where it
is acknowledged that it is where humans examine personal commitments whether they
want to be the cause of the problem or part of the solution. And humans cannot examine
themselves if they are not that free. The SYSTEM is towards achieving the same goals
cultivating and saving.
Third, Heidegger states, “To free actually means to preserve. The preserving itself
consists not only in the fact that humans do not harm the one they preserve. Real preserving
is something positive and takes place when human lease something beforehand in its own
essential unfolding, when they return it specifically to its essential being.”
Significantly, the SYSTEM allows to utilize things in their most respectful way by
giving it back to nature whatever is not consumed by man. In the process of implementing
the 5Rs and SB Way that instead of utilizing the resources against nature, it must go back
to engage and show up as things they are and not to work on nature against nature but the
promotion of being friendly to nature.
Fourth, Heidegger espouses the sort of thinking that opens new ways of looking at
things. For Heidegger, “Meditative thinking demands of man not to cling one-sidedly to a
single idea, nor to run down a one-track course of ideas.” Meditative thinking looks at
entities from the perspective of the whole and thereby sees things in a new light. In short,
meditative thinking is that which has to do with the whole, rather than thinking that
analyzes parts.
Along this line, the SYSTEM involves respecting the interconnectedness of
ecosystem and the human reliance on healthy ecosystems. The SYSTEM begins with a
step in thinking for what is good and beneficial to all rather than doing and thinking what
endangers humanity. The goal of thinking is to be the beings that man essentially are, those
who think, which will allow them to, then act in the appropriate manner and accomplish
dwelling. The SYSTEM enforces and qualifies how is it for humans to dwell.
Fifth, “But how else can mortals answer this summons than by trying on their part,
on their own, to bring dwelling to the fullness of its nature? They accomplish this when
they build out of dwelling and think for the sake of dwelling.”2 What Heidegger is
emphasizing is, thinking for the sake of dwelling. Thinking is the only power man has in
order to consider that being in the world is dwelling.
In like manner, the SYSTEM is a process of building. It is making scrap things to
be utilized again or the process of planting in order to dwell better. In this way, the project
enunciates how society of beings must dwell, that it should conform to what nature
prescribes as natural and not scientific. Dwelling as to the SYSTEM is concerned not to
humanize the world, but rather, to transform the world as a place of becoming more human
by reflexively reflecting and analyzing the self in the ways of treating the earth well.
Climate change is a product of non-awareness of man that they are indeed dwellers.
Abuse, misuse, irresponsibility and careless actions towards the natural world spell that
mortals forget and are unmindful that they are dwellers. The Sixth Extinction is a mark of
nature upheaval against humans that signifies the real situation of beings, that instead of
being dwellers they remain inessential and extraneous to their own home, the world.
2. YOU is for the YOU into Dwelling
First, Heidegger states, “To dwell means to remain at peace within the free, the
preserve, the free sphere that safeguard each thing in its essential unfolding. The
fundamental character of dwelling is this sparing and preserving.” 3
He states further,
“Mortals dwell in that they save the earth, to save properly means to set something free
into its own essential unfolding. To save the earth is more than to exploit it or even wear it
out. Saving the earth does not master the earth and does not subjugate it, which is merely
one step from boundless spoliation.”4
In the philosophical foundation of the SYSTEM, the YOU is for the YOU, it speaks
of respecting the self or the YOU by respecting nature. When one respects nature it thereby
signifies the upholding of preserving. To remain at peace with nature is to see
himself/herself from he/she does to nature, that if nature is suffering thereby the YOU is
likewise suffering. The YOU transpires himself from the things he does to the world, his
identity, his own nature and his manly treatment are being shared with the material being.
Second, as to the words of Heidegger, “When we speak of dwelling, we usually
think of an activity that man performs alongside many other activities. We do not merely
dwell that would be virtual inactivity, we practice a profession, we do business, we travel
and lodge on the way, now here, now there. I dwell, you dwell. The way in which you are
and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is Buan, dwelling. To be a
human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. It means to dwell which also means to
cherish and protect, to preserve and care for, specifically to till the soil, to cultivate the
vine.” 5
Such is the scenario of the YOU is for the YOU that if the YOU fails to manage his
environment well, because of that failure he has denied the mandate in not doing his earthly
commitment. It is given that it is only in this earth, where the YOU obtains a better self
and magnifies his self-becoming. It is in this world where his self-becoming occurs. Nature
is the companion of the YOU in his actualization.
Third, Heidegger exclaims, “But do the house in themselves hold any guarantee
that dwelling occurs in them. Dwelling would in any case be the end that presides over all
buildings. Dwelling and building are related as end and means. Building is not merely a
means and a way towards dwelling-to build is in itself already dwelling.”6
 In the perspective of the YOU is for the YOU, the case of global warming is
universal in nature that such environmental crisis is never to be considered building but
destroying. Practicing the virtue of preservation and unrestricted sharing is best done in the
act of building the home. The YOU in constantly acting for the fortification of creation is
building a better planet that is per se dwelling. Fourth, Heidegger learned to live with the
land and even felt a strong connection to the landscape, its people, and what was most
important to him: his work by living in his Black Forest farm house. Heidegger says,
“Building accomplishes its nature in the raising of locations by the joining of their space.
Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build.” 7
This pertains into the
character of beings getting into their intention of dwelling, that is, if the intention is
righteousness and decency of dwelling, then it is only then such being can build
The YOU is not to be regarded as dweller if he is not doing something good for
nature. And the YOU is also capable of rising above his own self by always choosing what
is good which is virtually classified as builder and dweller. Being good and doing what is
good cannot be suppressed for as long as the manner of dwelling is in the right perspective.
Fifth, Heidegger says “Mortals must ever learn to dwell”8 How can we dwell upon
the earth and get away from utilizing the resources with maximum efficiency? For
Heidegger, what it means to be fully human is to engage in thinking. He states, “Man still
is the being who is insofar as he thinks.”9
Heidegger does not argue against technology. What he argues against is becoming
so firmly shackled to technical devices that humans fall into bondage to them such that
they no longer engage in thinking. The YOU is for the YOU supports technology for as long
as this is to be used for protecting nature and it does not deal with the extreme scientific
means in responding to the needs of nature. The YOU will truly live for the YOU if the
YOU dwells in matter of building and thinking for the sake of dwelling.
3. PEERS TY into the Fourfold
One clear appropriation of the PEERS TY into the fourfold is the context of
Heidegger in this line, “But on the earth already means under the sky. Both of these also
mean remaining before the divinities and include a belonging to man’s being with one
another. By a primal oneness the four – earth and sky, divinities and mortals belong
together in one.” As such the PEERS TY that composes the projects Pro Environmental
Acts, Earth Friendly Users, 5Rs and SB Way, Trees for Life and YOU-Forest is presented
as one that must be treated as one and should be taken in unison with the other. The term
PEERS means brothers, brotherhood, comrade or camaraderie that doing the projects is an
expression of a deep brotherhood for humanity. Whenever the community of rational
beings do the PEERS TY they form themselves brothers in doing something for humanity.
Heidegger continues to say, “When we say earth, or say sky or divinities and
mortals we are already thinking of the rest that goes along with it for we give no thought
to the simple oneness of the four. Mortals are the human beings. They are called mortals
because they can die. To die means to be capable of death as death. Only man dies, and
indeed continually, as long as he remains on earth, under the sky, before the divinities.
When man speak of mortals, they are already thinking of the other three along with them,
but they give no thought to the simple oneness of the four.”10
With respect to the human situation of death, it is true that human beings pass the
earth only once. Man is therefore faced with a big test, or in one sense, calling and that is,
how to make life meaningful based from how man relates to nature. Humans are called to
establish a symbiotic relationship with the natural world. PEERS TY is the means to answer
that call, creating a synergic and interdependent existence.
As it is written in Poetry Language, Thought, “Mortals are in the fourfold by
dwelling. But the basic character of dwelling is to spare, to preserve. Mortals dwell in the
way they preserve the fourfold in its essential being, its presencing. Accordingly, the
preserving that dwells is fourfold.”11
Indeed, the PEERS TY affirms the fourfold that preserving that dwells is fourfold.
There is no way that man is not obliged in doing the PEERS TY because this is designed
to keep the resources to its useful purpose and must see to it that what man does is not
destructive to nature. Humans are mortals who dwell in the way he preserves that must be
done through the PEERS TY.
“Mortals would never be capable of preserving if dwelling is merely staying on
earth under sky before the divinities, among mortals. Rather dwelling itself is always
staying with things. Dwelling, as preserving, keeps the fourfold in that which mortals stay
in things.”
Every being is challenged in implement the PEERS TY that dwelling is not merely
staying on earth. Man cannot afford to be passive. Man does not want the present
generation to perish caused by his ancestor’s failure to dwell. Dwelling as Heidegger
emphasizes is always staying with things. PEERS TY is a human activity to be always with
things.
The answer to the ecological problem is when mortals put the SYSTEM into their
everyday lives. Man must forever learn and live how to dwell and built. The SYSTEM is
appropriated with respect as to how humans must face and handle global warming caused
by not properly dwelling. Indeed, man must learn how to dwell and always think to build
by living the SYSTEM.
Humans always share the world with others, thereby question with others. Humans
are situated in a certain place at a certain time in a certain context, and so forth, and the
questions that arise are contingent on the place, time and context. The question therefore
is: can mortals perpetually do and live the SYSTEM?
The SYSTEM begins with a step in thinking for what is good and beneficial to all
rather than doing and thinking what endangers humanity. The goal of thinking is to be the
beings who essentially are, those who think and then act in the most appropriate manner
accomplish dwelling. The SYSTEM enforces and qualifies how it is for humans to dwell.
Dwelling therefore is living the SYSTEM.

Conclusion:
The SYSTEM is appraised founded on ‘YOU is for the YOU’ existential
philosophy, the YOU as a significant being always attempts to dwell compelled to choose
either in the mode of passivity or in dynamism. The manner of dwelling is reflexive to the
identity and personality of the YOU. It is all because whatever one does to nature is
likewise doing it for the self, to the YOU, mirroring who he is as dignified being seeking
and learning to dwell.
The climate crisis fundamentally explicates that mortals who lived before this
present generation did not know how to dwell. Thus, man is now challenged to live with
the PEERS TY SYSTEM as a manner to build and dwell for it is in building that is in itself
dwelling.
Recommendation:
There is a need to study the SYSTEM within the realm of oriental philosophy like
relating it into Daoism, Hinduism and Buddhism thoughts. This is to see the significance
of the SYSTEM in oriental understanding whether this too can be appropriated or in line
with the traditional thinking of oriental philosophers.
The SYSTEM may also be further studied by looking on the applicability of ethical
genre whether what makes it ethical or unethical dealing with the natural world particularly
on how humans must respond to the call of the times. The questions that may be raised as
starting points are: is it ethical to respond to a nature problem? Is it ethical to do for the
earth, act to save and preserve it? Are mortals duty bound to do good for the natural world?