Phil 01 - Final Essay

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Heidegger: Existence as Dasein

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE

  • WEDNESDAY NOV. 14th – NO CLASS/QUIZ #2
  • NO CLASS NEXT WEEK – THANKSGIVING
  • MONDAY NOV. 26th – HEIDEGGER CONTINUED
  • WEDNESDAY NOV. 28th – HEIDEGGER FILM
  • MONDAY DECEMBER 3rd – OPTIONAL CLASS/PAPER REVIEWS
  • WEDNESDAY DEC. 5th – FINAL PAPER DUE!!

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Ontology and ontological problems

  • The study of being as such (the basic characteristics of all reality)
  • The nature of existence
  • The nature of the relationship between mind and body
  • The nature of psychological concepts
  • Human nature

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Problem 1: What is the nature of human existence?

  • Martin Heidegger's (1889-1976) Being and Time (1927). Examined the totality of human existence.
  • Dasein: “BEING" (sein) “THERE" (da). Person and the world are inseparable -> “being-in-the-world”
  • Being-in-the-world: Hyphens are used to emphasize the interrelatedness of the person and the world.

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Heidegger

  • Authenticity and inauthenticity
  • A prerequisite for living an authentic life was coming to grips with the fact that "I must someday die." (being-towards-death)
  • Realization  Person can exercise freedom to create a meaningful existence.
  • Refusal: Person inhibits an understanding of his or her possibilities  inauthentic life.

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Heidegger

  • Authentic life: Lived with a sense of excitement. Exploring life's possibilities. Becoming all that one can become.
  • Inauthentic life: One pretends. Living a conventional life emphasizing present activities without concern for the future. Giving up freedom and let others make the choices of one’s life.

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Heidegger

  • Guilt
  • If we do not exercise our personal freedom in existence Guilt
  • Authentic life  Minimize guilt.

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Heidegger

  • Acceptance of the fact that at some point in the future we will be nothing  anxiety (acceptance takes courage).
  • Making personal choices  anxiety.
  • Authentic people are always experimenting  anxiety.
  • Exercising one's freedom in life  anxiety.
  • Anxiety: A necessary part of living an authentic life.

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Heidegger

  • The free individual is responsible for the consequences of choices.
  • One cannot blame God, parents, circumstances, etc.
  • Freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand.

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Heidegger

  • Humans choose, evaluate, accept, reject, and expand. To exist is to become different. Humans choose the nature of their own existence.
  • Limits of personal freedom: We are thrown into the Dasein by circumstances beyond our control.
  • Thrownness determines the conditions under which we exercise our freedom.

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Problem 2: The relationship between mind and body

  • I. Dualism: Two substances
  • II. Monism: One substance

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Dualism

  • Interactionism: Descartes: res extensa - res cogitans. Mutual influence of mind and body. Mental -> physical; physical -> mental.
  • Parallelism: Leibniz: Mental and physical, mind and body: parallel mode.
  • Emergentism: Mental processes are produced by physical (brain) processes. Yet, mental processes, though produced by brain processes, are qualitatively different from the physical system from which they emerge.

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Monism

  • Materialism: Everything is physical or material. Our mind is a result of the physical. (Lamettrie)
  • Spiritualism: Everything is spiritual, mental or immaterial (Berkeley).
  • Identity-theory (double aspect monism): Mind and body are the same. We use different languages to describe these processes. (Spinoza, Schelling)
  • Epiphenomenalism: Physical events are causal with respect to mental events. Mental events have no independent existence. (Huxley)

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Problem 3: Concepts

  • Are psychological concepts of a natural or of a socio-historical kind?

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Problem 4: The nature of human nature

Theories of human nature

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