View source for Dasein

{{Short description|Term in Martin Heidegger's philosophy}}
{{Italic title}}
'''{{lang|de|Dasein}}''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɑː|z|aɪ|n}} {{respell|DAH|zyn}};<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Dasein}}</ref> {{IPA|de|ˈdaːzaɪn|lang}}) is a term in the philosophy of [[Martin Heidegger]]. Adopted from the ordinary German word {{lang|de|Dasein}} meaning 'existence',<ref>Literally 'being there' or 'presence', from {{lang|de|[[wikt:da#German|da]]}} 'there' + {{lang|de|[[wikt:sein#German|sein]]}} 'to be'. After the publication of ''[[Being and Time]]'', Heidegger came to prefer to hyphenate the term as {{lang|de|Da-sein}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stambaugh |first1=Joan |title=Being and Time |year=1996 |publisher=State University of New York Press |page=xiv |chapter=Translator's Introduction}}</ref> Heidegger used it to refer to the mode of [[being]] that he believed is particular to [[human beings]], who are aware of and must confront such issues as [[personhood]], [[Death|mortality]], and the dilemma or paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself.

== Meaning ==
In German, ''Dasein'' is the vernacular term for "existence". It is derived from ''da-sein'', which literally means "being-there" or "there-being".<ref name="Cultural Criticism 1995 p. 70">J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., ''The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism'' (1995) p. 70</ref> In a philosophical context, it was first used by [[Leibniz]] and [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Wolff]] in the 17th century, as well as by [[Kant]] and [[Hegel]] in the 18th and 19th; however, Heidegger's later association of the word with human existence was uncommon and not of special philosophical significance during this period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Inwood |first1=Michael |authorlink=Michael Inwood|title=A Hegel Dictionary |date=1992 |publisher=[[Blackwood (publishing house)|Blackwood]]|page=93}}</ref>

Dasein<ref>Because Heidegger's usage is non-standard and difficult to pin down, it has been incorporated into the English literature as a term. Both translations of ''Being and Time'' (John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson [1962] and Joan Stambaugh [1992, revised 2010]) retain the German as a term produced in Roman font, not foreign-language italics.</ref> for Heidegger is a mode of being involved with and caring for the immediate world in which one lives, while always remaining aware of the contingent element of that involvement, of the priority of the world to the self, and of the evolving nature of the self itself.<ref name="Cultural Criticism 1995 p. 70" />

The opposite of this authentic self is everyday and inauthentic Dasein, the forfeiture of one's individual meaning, destiny and lifespan, in favour of an (escapist) immersion in the public everyday world {{Ndash}}the anonymous, identical world of [[das Man|the They]] and the Them.<ref>Collins, J.; Selina, H.; & [[Richard Appignanesi|Appignanesi, R.]] (1998). ''Heidegger for Beginners'' (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books), pp. 64–81.</ref>{{rp|64–81}}

In harmony with [[Nietzsche]]'s critique of the [[subject (philosophy)#Nietzsche's critique of the subject|subject]], as something definable in terms of consciousness, Heidegger distinguished Dasein from consciousness in order to emphasize the way that "Being" shapes our entire understanding and interpretation of the world.

<blockquote>
"This entity which each of us is himself...we shall denote by the term 'Dasein{{'"}} (Heidegger, trans. 1927/1962, p.27).<ref name="Heidegger, M. 1962">Heidegger, M. (1962). ''[[Being and Time]]'', Translated by [[John Macquarrie]] & [[Edward Robinson (scholar)|Edward Robinson]]. London: S.C.M. Press.</ref>

"[Dasein is] that entity which in its Being has this very Being as an issue..." (Heidegger, trans. 1927/1962, p.68).<ref name="Heidegger, M. 1962" />
</blockquote>

Heidegger sought to use the concept of Dasein to uncover the primal nature of "[[Being]]" (''Sein''), agreeing with Nietzsche and [[Wilhelm Dilthey|Dilthey]]<ref>Collins, J.; Selina, H.; & Appignanesi, R. (1998). ''Heidegger for Beginners'' (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books), p. 48.</ref>{{rp|48}} that Dasein is always a being engaged in the world: neither a subject, nor the objective world alone, but the coherence of [[being-in-the-world]]. This ontological basis of Heidegger's work thus opposes the Cartesian "abstract agent" in favour of practical engagement with one's environment.<ref>Collins, J.; Selina, H.; & Appignanesi, R. (1998). ''Heidegger for Beginners'' (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books), p. 61.</ref>{{rp|61}} Dasein is revealed by projection into, and engagement with, a personal world<ref name="Philipse">{{Cite book|last=Philipse|first=Herman |authorlink=Herman Philipse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9y2rHPCOgsC&pg=PA220|title=Heidegger's Philosophy of Being: A Critical Interpretation|date=2021-05-11|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-1-4008-2295-9|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|220}} {{Ndash}}a never-ending process of involvement with the world as mediated through the projects of the self.<ref name="Cultural Criticism 1995 p. 70" />

Heidegger considered that language, everyday curiosity, [[logical system]]s, and common beliefs obscure Dasein's nature from itself.<ref>Collins, J.; Selina, H.; & Appignanesi, R. (1998). ''Heidegger for Beginners'' (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books), pp. 69–70.</ref>{{rp|69–70}}  [[bad faith (existentialism)|Authentic choice]] means turning away from the collective world of Them, to face Dasein, one's individuality, one's own limited life-span, one's own being.<ref>Collins, J.; Selina, H.; & Appignanesi, R. (1998). ''Heidegger for Beginners'' (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books), pp. 81–89.</ref>{{rp|81–89}} Heidegger thus intended the concept of Dasein to provide a stepping stone in the questioning of what it means to ''be'' {{Ndash}}to have one's own being, one's own death, one's own truth.<ref>[[Élisabeth Roudinesco|Roudinesco, E.]], ''Jacques Lacan: An Outline of a Life and History of a System of Thought'' ([[Cambridge]]: [[Polity (publisher)|Polity Press]], 1999), p. 96.</ref>

Heidegger also saw the question of Dasein as extending beyond the realms disclosed by positive science or in the history of [[metaphysics of presence|metaphysics]].  "Scientific research is not the only manner of Being which this entity can have, nor is it the one which lies closest. Moreover, Dasein itself has a special distinctiveness as compared with other entities; [...] it is ontically distinguished by the fact that, in its very Being, that Being is an issue for it."<ref>Heidegger, Martin. "The Ontological Priority of the Question of Being." ''Being and Time'' / Translated by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. London: S.C.M., 1962. 32</ref> ''[[Being and Time]]'' stressed the ontological difference between entities and the being ''of'' entities: "Being is always the Being of an entity."<ref>Heidegger, Martin. "The Ontological Priority of the Question of Being." ''Being and Time'' / Translated by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. London: S.C.M., 1962. 29.</ref> Establishing this difference is the general motif running through ''Being and Time''.

Some scholars disagree with this interpretation, however, arguing that for Heidegger Dasein denoted a structured awareness or an institutional "way of life".<ref>See John Haugeland's article "Reading Brandom Reading Heidegger". {{Cite web |url=http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/files/haugeland/Reading+Brandom+Reading+Heidegger.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-06-09 |archive-date=2018-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107230612/http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/files/haugeland/Reading+Brandom+Reading+Heidegger.pdf |url-status=dead }}.</ref> Others in turn suggested that Heidegger's early insistence on the ontological priority of Dasein was muted in his post-war writings.<ref name="Philipse" />{{rp|44}}

== Origin and inspiration ==
{{See also|Buddhism and Western philosophy#Heidegger}}
Some have argued for an origin of Dasein in [[Chinese philosophy]] and [[Japanese philosophy]]: according to [[Tomonobu Imamichi]], Heidegger's concept of Dasein was inspired—although Heidegger remained silent on this—by [[Okakura Kakuzo]]'s concept of ''das-in-der-Welt-sein'' (being in the world) expressed in ''[[The Book of Tea]]'' to describe [[Zhuang Zhou|Zhuangzi]]'s [[Taoist]] philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offered to Heidegger in 1919, after having followed lessons with him the year before.<ref name=Imamichi>{{Cite book
| author-link= Tomonobu Imamichi
| author= Tomonobu Imamichi
| title= In Search of Wisdom: One Philosopher's Journey
| publisher= International House of Japan
| year= 2004
| isbn = 9784120029868
| series = LTCB international library selection
| volume= 15
| translator= Mary E. Foster
}}</ref> Parallel concepts are also found in [[Indian philosophy]]<ref name=Mehta1987>{{Cite book
| first = J. L. | last= Mehta
| authorlink = Jarava Lal Mehta
| chapter= Heidegger and Vedānta: reflections on a questionable theme
| pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=bUa8ctgqeC8C&lpg=PP1&hl=cs&pg=PA15&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 15–46]
|editor-last=Parkes|editor-first=Graham|editor-link=Graham Parkes|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOvIJSN5LEEC&pg=PA30|title=Heidegger and Asian Thought| orig-year= 1987
|date=1992|edition=First Indian|publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]]
|quote=For any one in search of "philosophemes" common to Heidegger and Vedanta, or of similar-looking ideas in them, there is a great deal to be found regarding man's nature, the world, and man's relationship to it, the unity of Being, the identity between man and Being. (p. 30)
|isbn=81-208-0802-9}}</ref><ref name=Correya2018>{{cite web |last=Correya |first=Bosco |date=2018-03-25 |url=https://www.manjummelprovince.in/heideggerian-seinsdenken-and-advaita-vedata-of-sankara/ |title=Heideggerian Seinsdenken and Advaita Vedata of Sankara |publisher=St. Pius X Province}}</ref> and in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] lore.<ref name=Elgin2009>{{Cite book|last=Elgin|first=Duane|author-link=Duane Elgin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQuky6Z_qokC&pg=PT33|title=The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?|date=2009 |publisher=Berrett-Koehler Publishers |isbn=978-1-60509-904-0 |quote=American Indian lore speaks of three miracles. The first miracle is that anything exists at all. The second miracle is that living things exist. The third miracle is that living things exist that ''know'' they exist. As human beings conscious of ourselves, we represent the third miracle. (Ch. 1 &para; 1)}}</ref>

== Other applications ==
[[Eero Tarasti]] considered Dasein very important in ''Existential Semiotics''. In Tarasti's view the term Dasein has been given a "broader" meaning, has stopped meaning the condition of an individual being flung into the world, having instead come to signify an "existential phase" with the [[Sociohistorical linguistics|sociohistoric]] characteristics from which signs extensively emerge.<ref>{{cite book |title=Existential Semiotics |series=Advances in Semiotics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FySwDQAAQBAJ |first=Eero |last=Tarasti |authorlink=Eero Tarasti|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-253-33722-1 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FySwDQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA218&pg=PA24&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 24–30]}}</ref>{{rp|24–30}}

From this point of view, transcendence is the desire to surpass realist acceptance of the world as it is and to move towards a political, ethical and planned reality of subjectivity in semiotic relations with the world.

[[Jacques Lacan]] turned in the 1950s to Heidegger's Dasein for his characterisation of the [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] as being-for-death (''être-pour-la-mort'').<ref>[[Élisabeth Roudinesco|Roudinesco, É.]], ''Jacques Lacan'' (1999) p. 249-50</ref> Similarly, he saw the analyst as searching for authentic speech, as opposed to "the subject who loses his meaning in the objectifications of discourse...[which] will give him the wherewithal to forget his own existence and his own death".<ref>Jacques Lacan, ''Ecrits'' (1997) p. 70</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pettigrew|first1=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFghxWBTzecC&pg=PA60|title=Disseminating Lacan|last2=Raffoul|first2=François|author2-link=François Raffoul|date=1996-01-01|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|isbn=978-0-7914-2785-9|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|60}}

[[Alfred Schütz]] distinguished between direct and indirect social experience, emphasising that in the latter, "My orientation is not toward the existence (''Dasein'') of a concrete individual Thou. It is not toward any subjective experiences now being constituted in all their uniqueness in another's mind".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schutz|first=Alfred|title=The Phenomenology of the Social World|date=1967|location=[[Evanston, Illinois|Evanston, IL]]|publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]]|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=TobLgxW6ZXkC&lpg=PP1&hl=cs&pg=PA183&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 183]|isbn=978-0-8101-0390-0|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|183}}

[[Aleksandr Dugin]] uses Dasein as the foundation for the ''[[The Fourth Political Theory|Fourth Political Theory]]'', emphasizing Dasein and its role in Russian society. He puts this in opposition to Western (more specifically American) society, which is far too individualistic with an inauthentic view of individuality.<ref name=":Dugin">{{cite book |last=Dugin |first=Alexander |title=The Fourth Political Theory |publisher=Arktos Media |year=2012 |pages=1–50 |translator-last1=Sleboda |translator-first1=Mark |author-link=Alexander Dugin |translator-last2=Millerman |translator-first2=Michael}}</ref>

== Rhetorical use in the German election of November 1933 ==
Heidegger used the concept of Dasein to discuss [[Nazi]] ideology, and to advocate support for [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]. In the context of the [[November 1933 German parliamentary election|German election of November 1933]]{{Mdash}}in which the electorate was presented with a single Nazi-approved list of candidates{{Mdash}}he said the following:
<blockquote>The German people has been summoned by the Führer to vote; the Führer, however, is asking nothing from the people; rather, he ''is giving'' the people the possibility of making, directly, the highest free decision of all: whether it{{spaced ndash}}the entire people{{spaced ndash}}wants its own existence (''Dasein''), or whether it does not want it. [...] On November 12, the German people as a whole will choose ''its'' future, and this future is bound to the Führer. [...] There are not separate foreign and domestic policies. There is only one will to the full existence (''Dasein'') of the State. The Führer has awakened this will in the entire people and has welded it into a single resolve.<ref>Heidegger, M., [https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEHeideggerTractsTable.pdf#page=4 "German Men and Women!"], a speech delivered on 10 November 1933 at the [[University of Freiburg]]; printed in the ''Freiburger Studentenzeitung'', November 10, 1933. English translation in [[Richard Wolin|R. Wolin]], ed., ''The Heidegger Controversy'' (MIT Press, 1993), chapter 2.</ref></blockquote>

== Criticism ==

[[Theodor W. Adorno]] criticised Heidegger's concept of Dasein as an idealistic retreat from historical reality.<ref>{{cite book |first=Fredric |last=Jameson |author-link=Fredric Jameson|editor1=Michael Hardt|editor1-link=Michael Hardt |editor2=Kathi Weeks|editor2-link=Kathi Weeks|title=The Jameson Reader |year=2005 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell#Blackwell Publishing history|Blackwell Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-631-20269-1 |page=75 |oclc=864874128}}</ref>

[[Richard Rorty]] considered that with Dasein, Heidegger was creating a conservative myth of being, complicit with the [[Romantic epistemology|Romantic]] elements of [[Nazism]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Jeff |last1=Collins |first2=Howard |last2=Selina |first3=Richard |last3=Appignanesi |title=Heidegger for Beginners |year=1998 |pages=170, 110 |publisher=Icon Books |isbn=1-84046-003-2 |oclc=722818057}}</ref>

According to Julian Wolfreys, "There is no direct 'face'-to-'face' relation for Heidegger; despite his invaluable critique of ontology, he still reduces the relation between Dasein and Dasein as mediated by the question and problematic of being."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wolfreys|first=Julian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz4kDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT1942|title=Introducing Criticism in the 21st Century|date=2015-03-08|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]]|isbn=978-0-7486-9531-7|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|110–111}}

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*[[Being]]
*[[Face-to-face (philosophy)]]
*[[Existenz (Jaspers)|''Existenz'']]
*[[Generalised other]]
*[[Heideggerian terminology]]
*[[Nihilism]]
*[[Pre-Socratics]]
*[[Sartre]]
*[[Self-awareness]]
*[[Soul]]
*[[Thing-in-itself]]
*[[True self and false self]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|35em}}

== External links ==
* [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/ Martin Heidegger] (''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'')

{{Martin Heidegger}}
{{Philosophy topics}}
{{continental philosophy}}
{{Existentialism}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Ontology]]
[[Category:Phenomenology]]
[[Category:Existentialist concepts]]
[[Category:20th century in philosophy]]
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[[Category:Philosophy of Martin Heidegger]]