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Phenomenology:

Martin Heidegger (18891971)

AMALYN HINAHON, LPT


MAEd-Educational Management
Martin Heidegger (18891971)
He was a student of Husserl.
Before, he was a theology student, interested in much
more concrete matters of human existence than his
teacher, and his questions concerned how to live and
how to live "authentically"that is, with integrity, in a
complex and confusing world.
His use of phenomenology was subservient to this
quest, although the quest itself soon transcended the
phenomenological method.
Heidegger's phenomenology
It is most evident in his first (and greatest) book, Sein
und Zeit (1927; English trans. Being and Time, 1962).
Like his teacher Husserl, Heidegger insists that
philosophical investigation begin without
presuppositions.
But Husserl, he says, still embraced Descartes's basic
picture of the world, assuming that consciousness, or
"the mind," was the arena in which phenomenological
investigation took place.
Heidegger's phenomenology

Such a philosophy could not possibly be


presuppositionless.
SoHeidegger abandons the language of mind,
consciousness, experience, and the like, but
nevertheless pursues phenomenology with a new
openness, a new receptivity, and a sense of
oneness with the world.
Heidegger's early work
Heidegger's early work is defined by two themes:
1. Heidegger displays a profound anti-
Cartesianism, an uncompromising holism that
rejects any dualism regarding mind and body, any
distinction between subject and object, and the
linguistic separation of "consciousness,"
"experience," and "mind.
This also demands a reconsideration of the
Cartesian thesis that our primary relationship to
the world is one of knowledge.
Heidegger's early work
2. Heidegger's early philosophy is largely a
search for authenticity, or what might better be
described as "own-ness" (Eigentlichkeit), which we
can understand, with some qualification, as
personal integrity.
This search for authenticity will carry us into the
now familiar but ever-renewed questions about
the nature of the self and the meaning of human
existence.
Heidegger's early work (explains)

To ensure that we do not fall into Cartesian


language, Heidegger suggests a new term (the
first of many).
Dasein (literally, "being-there") is the name of
this being from whose perspective the world is
being described.
Dasein is not a consciousness or a mind, nor is it
a person. It is not distinguished from the world
of which it is aware.
Heidegger's early work (explains)

It is inseparable from that world. Dasein is, simply,


"Being-in-the-World," which Heidegger insists is a
"unitary phenomenon" (not being the world).

Thus, phenomenology becomes ontology (the nature of


being) as well.
Heidegger's early work (explains)

Being-in-the-World is not primarily a process of


being conscious or knowing about the world.

Science is not the primary concern of Dasein.


Dasein's immediate relation to the world is better
captured in the image of the craftsman, who
"knows his stuff," to be sure, but might not be
able to explain it to you nor even know how to
show it to you.
Heidegger's early work (explains)
What he can dowhat he does dois engage in his
craft.
He shows you that he knows how to do this and that
by simply doing it.
This knowing how is prior, Heidegger tells us, to
knowing that.
In effect, our world is essentially one extended craft
shop, a world of "equipment" in which we carry out
various tasks and only sometimesoften when
something goes wrongstop to reflect on what we are
doing and look at our tools as objects, as things.
Heidegger's early work (explains)

They are, first of all, just tools and material to be


used, and in that sense we take them for granted,
relying on them without noticing them.
Our concept of "things" and our knowledge of
them is secondary and derivative.
Heidegger's early work (explains)
Thus the notion of Dasein does not allow for the
dualism of mind and body or the distinction between
subject and object.
All such distinctions presuppose the language of
"consciousness.
But Heidegger defends an uncompromising holism in
which the self cannot be, as it was for Descartes, "a
thinking thing," distinct from any bodily existence.
But, then, what is the self?
It is, at first, merely the roles that other people cast
for me, as their son, their daughter, their student,
their sullen playmate, their clever friend.
Heidegger's early work (explains)

That self, the Das Man self, is a social


construction.
There is nothing authentic, nothing that is my
own, about it.
The authentic self, by contrast, is discovered in
profound moments of unique self-recognition
notably, when one faces one's own death.
And so Heidegger's phenomenology opens up the
profoundly personal arena of existentialist
phenomenology.
Reference:

http://science.jrank.org/pages/10640/Phe
nomenology-Martin-
Heidegger.html#ixzz4mw17TfSX
TO BE CONTINUED.

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