A Message to Michael

Michael;

I stumbled upon your review of The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time and I would like to chat with you about it.

I am beginning my 74th reading of Being and Time. I bought the book in 1995 and have been reading it for the past 15 years. I have also read Heidegger’s History of the Concept of Time 70 times.

I have found the problem with reading Heidegger has nothing to do with the subject matter. Heidegger is brilliant and what he is pointing at deserves to be heard. The problem is with the reader, the translator of his works, the editors that edit the translations, the professors who teach Heidegger, the English language, and even Heidegger himself adds to the problem of what he is talking about.

The problem with reading Heidegger and for that matter any philosophy is that as Heidegger says it in Being and Time, in Part II, section 5, bottom of 2nd paragraph, “To be sure, its ownmost Being is such that it has an understanding of that Being, and already maintains itself in each case as if its Being has been interpreted in some manner.” “The kind of Being which belongs to Dasein is rather such that, in understanding its own Being, it has a tendency to do so in terms of that entity towards which it comports itself proximally and in a way which is essentially constant – in terms of the 'world'. In Dasein itself, and therefore in its understanding of Being, the way the world is understood is, as we shall show, reflected back ontologically upon the way in which Dasein gets interpreted.”

In other words, we are 'thrown' to interpret who we are as a measurable, definable, thing and when we read Heidegger and all philosophy, we interpret Heidegger and all philosophy as a measurable, definable, thing to understand. This is why reading and studying philosophy provides no resolution or freedom (our birthright).

Let me show you what I mean by Heidegger himself adds to the problem. In 1995 I typed all 387 pages of Being and Time (Harper's) on my computer and as I said earlier I am reading it for the 74th time. Around the 70th reading I changed 'being' to 'Be-ing' where appropriate. Then I changed 'Dasein' to 'being-there' because I found when I read 'being' and 'Dasein' my tendency was to 'objectify' what Heidegger was saying by turning 'being' and 'Dasein' into things to understand.

That being said the following is how I have re-written what Heidegger said in Part II, section 5, bottom of 2nd paragraph, “Be-ing is such that it is an understanding of Be-ing, and already maintains itself as if Be-ing has been interpreted in some manner.” “The kind of Be-ing which belongs to Being-there (Dasein) is rather such that it has a tendency to do so in terms of that entity towards which it comports itself proximally and in a way which is essentially constant – in terms of the 'world'.

That last sentence needs to be re-stated as to not be overlooked. “In Being-there (Dasein), the way the world is understood is reflected back ontologically upon the way in which Being-there (Dasein) gets interpreted.”

In other words, you interpret who you are as if you are the world you live in. You are not the world you live along side of. Who you are is the 'My' in 'My finger', you are not the 'finger' which is measurable and definable. Just for the hell of it look up 'My' and 'I' in the dictionary. 'My' and 'I' are both defined as “used by a speaker in referring to himself or herself”. They can't be defined, only you have the power to uncover who you are.

When we read Heidegger we aren't Be-ing the conversation. Evidenced by the wording that Heidegger uses, I really don't know if he was Be-ing what he wrote or whether his writing was a compilation of historical 'hints'. He also could have been a slave to literary convention. I do know this, that whether he was Be-ing what he wrote, whether Being and Time is a compilation of historical 'hints', or whether he was a slave to 'literary convention' doesn't matter. What matters is if you are Be-ing the conversation. If you keep the 'conversation' at arm's length by 'objectifying' what Heidegger is saying, you aren't engaged in the conversation and you are missing out on the possibility of Be-ing your 'self'. You end up spending your time on the planet perpetuating the 'cover-up' and blaming others for your circumstances.

One last tidbit. When you said "That death is a primary aspect of what it means to be human. If you are aware of death as he says, then you can be aware of the meaning of life. The meaning of life comes to us because we understand that we are finite, that we are mortal and not in control." You missed what Heidegger was saying. You are speaking of death as if it is a thing, an event that happens. The moment you are born, you are already dead, you just don't know when it will happen. That's a given, a non-issue that doesn't even need to be talked about. By the way, speaking of 'death' as an event that happens to your/others physical body is all the evidence you need to prove to your 'self' that you are a victim of your 'thrownness' to interpret Heidegger, all philosophy, and everything you read as a measurable, definable, thing to understand. You are 'thrown' to interpret your 'self' as a definable, measurable, physical 'thing'.

What Heidegger is talking about when he speaks of 'running towards death', 'anticipatory resoluteness' and 'death' is the following:

As you de-construct the 'world' and disentangle your 'self' from the measurabilty and definability of it, you come to a point where you can no longer prove the existence of your 'self'. When you come face-to-face with the "possibility of the impossibility of your existence" who you've been Be-ing dies so that you can be your 'self'. You uncover/discover that anything is possible and that you are no longer a slave to proving your existence. This is the 'death' Heidegger is talking about. In Be-ing you 'anticipate resolving' 'death' so that you can be your 'self'. This is the essence of human freedom. In Be-ing you answer the question "Who am I?"