(Most terms are taken from Heidegger’s book “Being and Time” (1927)
About the person:
Man is a being whose existence means the inquiry of himself and his connection with being. Investigation is the meaning of life. Man’s being is a subject that requires investigation. His connection with being is an existential and significant matter. Being is the world. (Intelligence of observation) Man has no fixed essence. It is defined by the very existence as the ability to be, as the possibility of being.
Investigation is only one option – but it is a condition of authenticity. Human existence is not as much as these as the ability to be. Man exists in the world in three dimensions of existentialism:
- Being in front of objects – factual, attitude of care – care (int of desire to receive)
- Being on the side of others – preoccupation, use with and for… concern for peace. (Int of desire to give)
- Being towards death – possibility – a constant process of dying, a possibility for authenticity. (Int. Of free will)
From the moment we are born we are in the process of dying.
The dying – either you choose authenticity – in being aware of it or you deny it and then you are not authentic. Life is a process of dying.
Man is a constant process of that drains to death. If it is conscious it is authentic and if it is unconscious it is authentic.
The fall:
Escape, the person’s disengagement from himself and the adoption of the values and meanings of someone else, the other, which he calls: “those”.
This way of existence is common and most of us live like this.
‘‘Those” are everyday – man knows that all the creatures he meets on a daily basis are the same. Man constantly compares himself to others. Comparison creates a disturbance to my existence with others because it creates distance – it enslaves the person to others, because he constantly compares himself to them. The comparison is to the social images that come to us many times through the media. The comparison also creates distance. The comparison enslaves the person but also distances him from himself and others.
It brings to the average – to the little citizen (who is each and every one) – the collectivity of all people. “Everyone is the other and no one is himself.” (Heidegger).
The distances and the averageness leads to a reduction – The possibilities of being in the world are reduced, there is a lowering of the possibilities – of what can we do in relation to the object of comparison presented to us.
Distance, averages, the lowering – all creates publicity – publicity denies the person’s interpretations, he goes by the average and takes things for granted. The public denies and takes from the individual his answers and privacy and gives him the “them”. “Trouble for many is half consolation”.
The fall is the person’s response to the temptation that “they” offer him.
Hiding:
Idle conversation – suppression of discussion, argument, gossip, tampering with margins. Are all hiding the truth, man has no real desire to know himself and his world. There is no character of inquiry and discovery in the average citizen.
Curiosity:
A frantic jump from one thing to another, from one innovation to another, the main goal – distraction. Everything interests us and nothing interests us, like multi-channel TV. (Lack of interest in observation).
Ambiguity:
No more clarity. Everything is accessible to everyone. It is impossible to know what is true and what is false. I do not know myself because I have given up the right that the world is mine, I do not explore or direct it. Everything is hidden and dim. Everyone goes after “those”, the others, and the world is hidden from individual man.
Man’s perception of death:
Death as something undefined, it will come when it is unknown date
The certainty of death is hidden, it is not really conscious for us daily.
Unauthentic certainty – we are dealing with the death of others, it is easy for us to bury the awareness of death under the mountains of frequent preoccupations we have.
The person on a daily basis feels that he is above death. The thought of death is seen by “those” as cowardice. And indifference to death is perceived as supreme.
Heidegger says – “Those” do not allow us the courage to fear death.
Death was a central theme of Heidegger’s thought throughout his entire philosophical career. The immense popularity of Being and Time owed much to his emphasis that “preparedness for death” is a fundamental key to authentic existence – that the disclosure of authentic Being only occurs when Dasein confronts its own finitude by resolutely accepting that it is always, and inescapably, on a journey towards its own death.
The horror (Angst)
Anxiety about being in the world and especially from the primary nothingness that involves death.
Horror is the breaking point – it is the taste of the fall. Horror is in the background all the time and any moment can come to the surface. Horror of something undefined.
Horror reveals the structure of what it means to be in the world, exposing the world in its meaninglessness and absurdity, This means that until today there was no meaning and “they” are actually fictitious. Suddenly I am left alone in front of the world and the world is empty of meaning.
In horror/anxiety – all the familiarity that was in the fall disappears, everything becomes alien.
This is the primary state of man in the world and only in terror can he see it.
The horror does not arise from the horror (as fear of something) but arises from myself as one who is being towards death.
Horror not only denies us, it also gives – it puts the person in front of himself and reveals to him that he is only a possibility, that he exists as an ability to be.
If at first we thought our options were limited to “them”, then now we should be able to discover a set of options before us.\, Because: the horror returns the person to his individual (before he was in the public like “those”)
Now he is again aware of his freedom (does not have to do what the fictitious “they” do).
As soon as the horror rises, “those” (the collective, conditioned majority) are revealed as fiction. But once you become the source of things, you have no one collectivity to hang on to, no majority to rely on and take responsibility for, other than ourselves. And then we discover ourselves as unique people and the recognition of being towards death.
Authenticity
Authenticity is the answer to the call
In our inner authenticity at its peak, it sends man to his very existence. From now on everything we do stems from our focus on our world.
Death directs us to our very existence. Back to ourselves in the deepest sense.
Death is only mine, no one can share it. The experience of death is a pure experience that sets me and my world apart.
Liberty
Elections have a place for all the intelligences associated with growth in doing and development, which are basically all the intelligences on all four levels – spiritual, mental, emotional and physical.
self
Man returns to himself in the most inner and deepest way.
Certainty
In the fall, the certainty of death is less – living in a dim world where there is no certainty, certainly no certainty towards death. Here there is a deep and peaceful certainty of death as something my life is heading towards. Certainty is something strong to hold, it is deep and existential.
Man does not know how and when he will die, but in his constant intention he opens himself to the threat. Therefore, in fact, terror always exists – this is another openness of the threat.
Alongside the horror rises the joy
the happiness
The great joy is over the very existence. The person deals mainly with the nonsense of everyday life. This is a non-trivial joy, an existential joy.
The authentic D (the authentic person) lives in a joy full of joy.
The authentic person can be the conscience of the other, that is, to direct the other towards himself. I can help other human beings turn to themselves and help them reach out to themselves. It is done in – authentic silence – the ability to know the other as a possibility instead of the factual way (what he does and what he looks like…)
The ability to remove the abstraction shell from objects.
Intelligence of desire to give – the ability to act for a noble cause to create a world that is all good.
Heidegger says that authenticity is moments of grace of truth that rise and fall from time to time – that is the ideal !!!
Gabriel