Understanding Heidegger's Notion of Dasein - Part 2

By Marco Antônio Bomfoco

Platonism represents for Heidegger the essence of the “metaphysics of subjectivity”, an expression
created by Heidegger to designate modern metaphysics. Heidegger's ontological project is also an
attack against the doctrine known as metaphysics of presence. Metaphysics of presence, or
traditional ontology, is a particular way of understanding the nature of reality that states there is an
immutable essence (from the Greek, eidos) or basic nature that makes the entity what it is. It is the
idea found in Plato's Forms, Aristotle's primary substances, Descartes' res extensa and res
cogitans, Kant's noumena, etc. Furthermore, traditional metaphysics places ontology somewhere
beyond time, contingence, and change, then uses these supernal entities like "reason" or
"rationality" to order all existence. In the long run, what happens is that those philosophers seek an
extraordinary principle for explaining the world, without reference to the everyday life. In his critique
of metaphysics, Heidegger tells us that Nietzsche emerges as the last great philosopher of the age
of the subject. Possibly, Nietzsche's interpretation of Being as will to power is a form of inverse
Platonism. But still, it was Nietzsche who opened up the door to postfoundationalist culture. And
Heidegger tried to think Nietzsche in all its consequences. It is clear, then, that Heidegger
completely rejected the fundamental concept associated with traditional metaphysics, to know, that
there is an intrinsic human nature or a universal essence of humanity. So in a Heideggerian view
there is no return to this kind of lost "centrality". In Heidegger's approach characteristics once
considered as "human nature" are characteristics of one's particular culture. That is, the social
environment one is thrown into, one's "world".

What is the problem with positivism? Positivism discredits all rational reflections which are not
formulated by logics and mathematics. In the heart of this ninetieth century movement lies the idea
that we can use principles of mathematics for deriving the outside world. This is, indeed, not new.
Galileo, Descartes and Newton advocated the vision of nature as a mathematical Universum. In the
text “The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology” (1935-1936), Husserl
accused positivism for the reduction of science to a mere science of facts. Husserl pointed out that
the problem with the modern philosophy of Descartes is its admiration for the mathematical science
of nature. According to Husserl, it is because of this that philosophy lost its importance for life.
Anyway, Husserl still believed in the necessity of constructing philosophy as a rigorous science. We
need to recall that Husserl came to philosophy from the mathematical sciences. There is no doubt
that Husserl is one of the most important thinkers in German philosophy since Kant. According to
Husserl, scientific positivism, or the positivist limitation of science, has nothing to teach us for it
excludes precisely the questions that are primordial for our epoch: the question of the meaning or
lack of meaning of human existence. In this light, against the impoverishment of life Husserl
suggests to concentrate on the study of life-world (Lebenswelt). Note that the positivist conception
of philosophy, which is empiricist in its origin, is nowadays outdated. However, as a methodology
empiricism has survived through modern science. Following Husserl, Heidegger also challenges the
scientific or empirical thought.

In his attempt to think beyond metaphysics, Heidegger uses the notion of Dasein as a point of
departure for the reflection about the human existence as a given condition. Yes, but what exactly
is Dasein? The term Dasein comes from two German words: Da (there) and Sein (being). Da-sein
means literally "being-there": human being is the “there” of the Being. Dasein is the human
existence. Dasein is an entity's mode of Being. It is important to understand that Dasein exists as a
possibility of Being. In other words, between Being and Nothing exist beings. Heidegger advocated
that "existence" is the mode of being characteristic of Dasein. Clearly, Dasein has priority over all
other entities since it is characteristic of Dasein the understanding of the being who is not Dasein. In
short, the essence of Dasein consists in its existence.

Perhaps the best way to assess the significance of Dasein to the Western thought is with reference
to the work of Descartes and Husserl, the former the father of modern philosophy, the latter, as
noted earlier, a contemporary of Heidegger. Let us recall first that Descartes defends a dualist
metaphysics. For Descartes, the world is made up of two entirely different and independent types of
substance: mind and matter, or consciousness and world. Accordingly, Descartes’ philosophy is
called metaphysics of substance dualism. This dualism is present on Husserl’s phenomenology. In
fact, Descartes is at the center of Husserl’s reflection. Both philosophers were involved by the same
question: how can consciousness come to know a world outside consciousness? The new insight of
Husserl was to explain consciousness as intentionality, moving his project beyond the limits of an
empiricist psychology. For Husserl, all consciousness, by its very nature, is “consciousness of”, that
is, is “intentional”. Naturally, the concept of intentionality represents a radical shift from
Cartesianism. Husserl believed that phenomenology was the one true path to philosophy. On
Heidegger’s view, the problem with their dualism is that Descartes and Husserl take it for granted
from the outset. That is, they do not discover it. So, according to Heidegger, Descartes’ philosophy
is not a new start and Husserl’s phenomenology is not “presuppositionless” as they have claimed.

Now, what is significant here is to stress that Descartes and Husserl privileged the “I” and its
certainty over the world. In essence, the Cartesian “ego cogito”, that is, the rational individuality and
the “I” as the Husserlian transcendental subject do not need the world to exist. Both, in fact, exist “in
and for itself”. For Descartes, the world exists as a result of man’s mind. In other words, Descartes’
res cogitans (“thinking thing”) presupposes that the world does not exist. Surely Descartes’ and
Husserl’s idealism follows from this methodological precedence of subjectivity. On the other hand,
Heidegger does not speak of man as Consciousness, I, Subject, Self, Agent, etc. but only as
Dasein. For Heidegger, the subject is not a “naturally occurring thing”, but, on the contrary, it is a
philosophical category of thought that arose at a particular point in history. In reality, the modern
idea of subject as a philosophical abstraction was created as a tool for solving philosophical
problems. Thus, in place of the transcendental subject, Heidegger proposes the analysis of Dasein.
For Heidegger, Dasein is "always already" in the world, which is to say that Dasein is not separated
from the world. In brief, we do not inhabit a world that is fundamentally separated from us. Now
recall that Descartes’ proposal resembles the Christian idea that we are in the world, but not of it.
Yet Dasein is in the world and belongs to the world. So, in place of the being out of the world of the
transcendental subject, Heidegger proposes that Dasein's activity of existence is “in-der-Welt-Sein”
(being-in-the-world). Indeed, Dasein means being-in-the-world. Note that the preposition "in"
indicates involvement and not spatial location. Dasein is one being among all other beings. Thus
the human existence is always coexistence with others and with material world. Besides, Heidegger
claims Dasein’s ontological primacy over Descartes’ “thinking thing”. Descartes assumes the
“thinking thing”, that is, the subjectivity, as the ultimate reference point for his philosophical system;
the “I think” is the foundation for his certainty in absolute knowledge. On the contrary, for Heidegger
without Being there is no Dasein. Finally, because Dasein is described mainly in terms of
temporality, Heidegger’s proposal speaks of an existential time in place of a time of inner time
consciousness as was proposed by Husserl’s phenomenology. According to Heidegger, time is a
dimension where Dasein moves on. In truth, Dasein is constituted by time and language. But both
pre-exist to Dasein. (See Part 3)

By Marco Antônio Bomfoco