История на философията
VISUAL AND LANGUAGE CODES OF BASIC EXISTENTIALS IN HEIDEGGER’S BEING AND TIME
Резюме. The article will present Heidegger’s philosophical concept in Being and Time, which disclosed the human existence through the problem of time. Heidegger creates his own conceptual language through which the visibility of the environmentality directs to Dasein and to the ready-to-hand world. Existentials outline the dimensions of Dasein in the basic constitution of the Being. Their presenting leads to the division of zones of the existence, the human world and its existential constitution – Dasein reveals its possibilities to be and its existential basic state. To present the scope of Heidegger’s existential analytic, the following Existentials can be structured: World, Everydayness, Care, Death, and Conscience. Each and every Existential will be considered through its visual and language codes.
Ключови думи: Heidegger; existential analytic; Existentials; world; everydayness; care; death; conscience
Philosophy has been trying to respond to human demand over the centuries. We ask questions themselves, and they are usually related to our lives. The answers are sometimes unclear and we need some interpretation to understand them. This paper aims to raise awareness of different visual and language codes through which the philosophical ideas of German philosopher Martin Heidegger from his famous book Being and Time can be presented. In his work, he puts forward the question of the meaning of human existence, of Being, which he defines as fundamental, and which needs to be clarified.
According to Heidegger, “every inquiry is a seeking” (Heidegger, 2001: 24). Seeking leads to learning, as it is guided by what is sought. Heidegger introduces his own conceptual language through which he presents a new understanding of Being and Time. Searching for the answer takes us to a new linguistic world.
The basic term introduced at the very beginning of the book is Dasein. We are the ones who ask the question of the meaning of our own existence. Dasein is the human presence in the world. Its place is in the openness of the Being. Dasein always understands itself in terms of its existence. Dasein’s presence in the world has its own characteristics of the Being that Heidegger calls Existentials. In order to be ‘seen’, the Being and its structures are transformed into a phenomenon that: “is understood from the beginnings as that which shows itself in itself” (Heidegger, 2001: 54). The structures of Dasein, the Existentials, revealed through are the world, care, concern, death, and everydayness. Heidegger thus developed his own research, which he described as existential analytic. Each of these Existentials will be examined by referring to its visual and language codes.
The basic concept which Heidegger introduces and which, in turn, leads to the clarification of the question of Being, is Dasein. The language code of the word Dasein is in ‘Da’ – meaning Here, and as an adverb, it has many other meanings – here, now, then, before. ‘Da’ relates to both the time and the location. With ‘Sein’ meaning ‘Being’, Dasein is literally ‘Being-here’, which asks about this ‘Being’. Dasein asks questions in and around the world. Dasein is that HereBeing, which is along with everything in-the-world that exists, for which it asks questions. Through the Ex-istence, Dasein is represented as the Being of the world in the openness of the existing: “This here-present being of our actuality as living, conscious and existing entities is the very existence, Heidegger names it Dasein. What characterizes the whole human presence, which reveals itself as an event in the previous found existence of the world? What is the structure of human existence?” (Kristeva, 2016: 389).
Dasein is in the world that includes Others and Things. Heidegger defines Man as ‘Being’ within the world. Along with the other entities, Man turns out to be absorbed by the surrounding environment. The entities are the things. The Existential worldhood includes Dasein and the entities, through which the world is shown as within-the-world the structure system of the world of entities. The visual code of this within-the-world is the panorama that can be revealed to us by a 360° picture, or that in the image language is so-called photosphere. It is a world that can be represented or seen from all its sides: “This is an innovative and interesting construction, because it contains the event-phenomenon of presence: the world is around the subject, the personality, but the world also unfolds as fused and floating together with its sight and presence. Heidegger goes even further – this is, namely, the everyday world, which every day surrounds the human presence and so determines its way of living in the world“ (Kristeva, 2016: 390).
This is the world of the everydayness, the aroundness of the environment, thus emphasizing the Dasein’s Spatiality. Heidegger defines things as ‘ready-to-hand’ (Heidegger, 2001: 97 – 98), while concern for food and clothing is defined as care. According to Heidegger’s language code, ready-to-hand are the close-by objects, those that are ‘present-at-hand’, which I can catch, stretching my hand. The things are handy, and they are an integral part of being-in-the-world. The things that are handy are the objects that serve us. The notion of a world as a phenomenon represents the visible, and part of the visible is the objects around. Heidegger distinguishes between “Things of Nature and Things ‘invested with value’” (Heidegger, 2001: 91). Things ‘invested with value’ show the world in a more discerning way and are becoming within-the-world; they are ‘visible’ to the within-the-world existing, serve for ... and are available. They can also be related to references and signs. Because they are indicators ‘for’ and it is a universal kind of relation (Heidegger, 2001: 108), which can serve as an orientation value. This, in turn, presupposes relations with the Others.
The human Being is Being-in-the-world and Being with Others. This existence with Others directs us to the Existential conscience. Conscience is Dasein’s ability to be itself and is a matter of choice. Conscience is the way for something to be understood and revealed, the voice of conscience ‘calls’in cases of guilt. Conscience is an appeal to reveal the truth because it is Giving-to-understand. Heidegger defines conscience as the Call of Care (Heidegger, 2001: 319). The ‘voice’ of conscience speaks somehow of ‘guilt’, whereas ‘Being-guilty’ in the sense last mentioned, a ‘moral requirement’, is a kind of Being which belongs to Dasein.
The application of such concepts to the field of moral philosophy or descriptive ethics is not typical of Heidegger’s existential philosophy. These are aspects that can hardly be found in his book because they do not form the basis for his study. Nevertheless, he resorts to them: “The primordial “Being-guilty” cannot be defined by morality, since morality already presupposes it for itself” (Heidegger, 2001: 332).
Heidegger identifies care as the fundamental Existential. This is one of the structures of Dasein’s Being, whose meaning is in its temporality. Care is not related to concern or anxiety but is the basis of Dasein’s existentiality. Through the Being possibilities of care, Dasein is already referring to the falling – an ontological concept of movement, i.e., the language code which Heidegger uses to show time – the past, the present, and the future. Such understanding of time is unusual, innovative and original, as it provides opportunities for different interpretations. The most complete revelation of time is through the disclosure of the Existential of care. The past, the future is the next, and the present is pure ‘sequence’ of ‘nows’.
Dasein’s integrity as a structural entity is in the Being-towards, whose first phenomenon is the future, not interpreted as Now, which has not actually occurred, but as Dasein coming to its own Potentiality-for-Being, coming towards itself. Having been, the past, arises as a result of the future, of what is coming, and which has already liberated the present. The Heidegger language code is time – we designate it as temporality.
In Being and Time, Heidegger developed several concepts related to the problem of time. To begin with, he stresses the irreversibility and directedness of time in Dasein’s Being-toward-death, showing that the true nature of the finitude of time does not lie in the limited amount of time the individual has, but in this very irreversibility and directedness. As a consequence, finitude gains a more profound meaning of a lasting, indestructible relation of life and death. Heidegger is one of the first philosophers who said that Man is time as Time is not something in which man finds himself, it is his way of existing – being in, temporalizing and timing. For Heidegger “Being in means the way in which the human being exists as his ‘there’ and constitutes it through understanding of itself-in-the-world together with a certain attunement.” (Stambaugh, 1974: 131).
Time is structured as an opportunity for Dasein, which has its integrity, meaning and completeness – through death. Heidegger defines care as Being-towards-death. This is an indication of the primordial being finite, having an end, which raises the question of the finitude of time. In the context of the constitution of care, temporality is basically ecstatic. Primordial time is finite. The three ecstasies of time – the future, the past and the present relate to the existence of Dasein’s death, thus constituting its integrity and completeness, because every beginning has its end. The future is death, and the past may be birth. The now-saying and, in this sense, asking the question “What’s the time?” has its answer not as giving exact time, saying ‘now’. Heidegger defines time measurement as a dating of time that also has its own language code – now and now and now as it is in the public sphere.
Another existential, resulting from the oncoming is fear. The phenomenon of being anxious precedes the fear. Heidegger defines it as the expectation of some oncoming evil. Fear is related to anticipation – “Anxiety is anxious about naked Dasein as something that has been thrown into uncanniness” (Heidegger, 2001: 393 – 394). Anxiety is Dasein’s ability, which comes from the within-the-world and leads to confusion. In fear, Dasein is looking forward to the future. This is not a fear of something concrete but of nothing. Heidegger defines it as an opportunity for Dasein to achieve itself as a true Potentiality-to-be.
Death as an Existential is part of Dasein itself. Dasein’s Being is completed through death. Understanding of death is part of existence, which is possible only by achieving completeness. Heidegger defines Dasein’s Being as Being-towardsdeath. On-to/towards – it’s the time – the past and the future. Or that is the meaning of human existence – Being and Time. Death is the end whereas the birth is the beginning – “Only that entity which is ‘between’ birth and death presents the wholewhich we have been seeking” (Heidegger, 2001: 425). Heidegger defines the characteristics of life between birth and death as successive experiences in time that are Being-a-whole. Because the connection of life implies having history as such are the links to an emergence of something new – history here means a conjunction of events and relations of influence that passes through the past, the Рresent and the future. Depending on the essential definition of human existence through spirit and culture, it distinguishes it from nature. Heidegger defines Man as a subject of events. This article briefly outlined the basic language and visual codes of the key Existentials from Heidegger’s book. Being and Time is extensive, immeasurable and revolutionary in philosophy, because the author develops a unique and innovative concept of the meaning of human existence that he seeks in being and time. Heidegger gives one of the many answers by creating his own conceptual language, favorable for various interpretations and new philosophical researches. Through Heidegger’s existential analysis and the specific Existentials developed in Being and Time we could try to present a modern vision of Man, the scope of which is in the existential constitution of Man, the fundamental structure of Dasein as the human presence in the world.
REFERENCES
Heidegger, M. (2001). Being and Time. Oxford UK & Cambridge USA: Blackwell.
Kristeva, S. (2016). Personality Structuring in Psychoanalytical Perspective, Philosophy, 25 (4), 383 – 399 [In Bulgarian].
Stambaugh, J. (1974). Time, Finitude, and Finality. In: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 24, No. 2, Time and Temporality (Apr., 1974), 129 – 135, Hawai: University of Hawai’i Press.