Deck 27: Martin Heidegger: The Meaning of Being

Question 1

Heidegger chooses Dasein as the entity to interrogate as a first step toward uncovering the meaning of Being because

A) he is not yet sure that anything else exists.
B) an understanding of Being is a definite characteristic of Dasein's Being.
C) Dasein is a subject, and whatever has Being has it relative to some subject.
D) he's got to start somewhere.

Answer 1

an understanding of Being is a definite characteristic of Dasein's Being.

Question 2

As Being-in-the-world, Dasein

A) includes the world as a proper part of its own Being.
B) exists primordially as present-at-hand.
C) is immersed in a world of gear or equipment.
D) exists independently of others, with whom it must make connection if there is to be a common world.

Answer 2

is immersed in a world of gear or equipment.

Question 3

In average everydayness, Dasein

A) is the "I myself."
B) is unconcerned with the "distance" between itself and the Others.
C) falls-in-with-the-One.
D) is saddled with answerability for the way things go.

Answer 3

falls-in-with-the-One.

Question 4

Anxiety

A) needs to be overcome if we are to be authentic.
B) reveals how far from the truth we have strayed.
C) has as its object something determinately impending as a threat to Dasein's Being.
D) motivates falling-away-from-ourselves into the tranquilizing world of what "they" say.

Question 5

"Falling-away-from" is characterized by

A) an acute understanding of our inauthenticity.
B) fleeing in the face of anxiety.
C) fleeing the world of the "They."
D) fleeing toward death.

Question 6

In authentic existence, Dasein

A) anticipates its own death.
B) finds its own pure essence, distinct from the They-self, and remains true to it.
C) is true to its own understanding of itself as other-than-the-They.
D) is motivated by curiosity to find the truth.

Question 7

As Being-toward-death, Dasein

A) necessarily flees in the face of this possibility.
B) can be understood as a totality.
C) recognizes its guilt for not having done what it ought.
D) identifies itself as something immortal, despite appearances.

Question 8

The meaning of Dasein's Being, Care,

A) is Being-itself.
B) manifests itself in Dasein as worry-as-such.
C) shows that the best thing for man is never to have been born.
D) shows itself in having been, making present, and being always ahead of itself.

Question 9

What is the problem Heidegger is concerned with, why is it a problem, and how does he propose to address it?

Question 10

Dasein is "ontically distinguished by the fact that, in its very Being, that Being is an issue for it." Explain.

Question 11

How does Heidegger understand Dasein's Being-in-the-world?

Question 12

What does Heidegger mean by the "present-at-hand," and what is its relationship to scientific inquiry?

Question 13

"Everyone is the other, and no one is himself." Explain.

Question 14

What are the main modes of disclosure for Dasein, and how do they turn inauthentic?

Question 15

Can Dasein be understood as a totality?

Question 16

How does Heidegger understand conscience?

Question 17

What is authentic existence?

Question 18

Descartes thinks that solipsism is a real possibility, one that needs to be ruled out by rational argument. Explain why he thinks this. Then discuss that claim from the point of view of Martin Heidegger.

Question 19

Compare Heidegger's concept of thrownness-into-the-world-of-the-One to Wittgenstein's notion of the "picture of the world" that forms the "inherited background" against which we distinguish between true and false.

Question 20

Is it correct to call Heidegger an "existentialist"? Give some reasons for thinking this is appropriate and some for thinking it a mistake.