82. Martin Heidegger

Among the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Martin Heidegger take his place as a kind of hybrid of an ontologist (as he styled himself) and existentialist (as often characterized by others). Either way, he captured the spirit of an age in which the meaninglessness of human existence and the anxiety of human mortality found poignant expression.

[keemareang]

Once again, thank you so much sir for explaining Heidegger's philosophy in a simple way. And your explanation helps me to understand Heidegger's writing better. May God bless and keep you strong to be more useful for His vineyard.

[matthieupommier]

Thanks for the class but I d like to dwell on the term of DASEIN.

DASEIN may mean « there being » and NOT « BEING THERE ».

In fact the Dasein (a human being) is where the being question takes place and makes sense. « To be or not to be ? » makes sense in the mind of a human : being is not questioned by a cat or a tree.

Therefore, DASEIN means a MAN or a WOMAN in the sense that the questions « why is there something ? », « what is to be », « what does being mean » etc. take place in his very mind.

Dasein = the place (da) where being (sein) is questioned.

[mokhlisstsoulifaroukh]

Any reference to the Spanish guitar at the beginning. Thanks

[mayevensonmarbaniang]

Thank you Sir Gore. I am grateful for all these teachings and they have helped me alot. Looking forward for more of these... Sartre, God bless your work.

[simongiles]

I can see a pretty obvious counterargument to the apologetics offered here: on what basis is the Christian's idea of the "Grace of God" not simply a comforting fiction to overcome *their* own existential angst? As far as I can see, it only deals with the angst by believing that, no, there really is something there after all.

I'll be interested to see what you do with Sartre and Camus who come up with their own thoughts on accepting and dealing with angst (well... sort of).

As for why Homo sapiens is the only animal species to experience angst, well. First off, how do we know this for sure, since we can't discuss philosophy with other species?
But from a purely biological perspective, simply because we have more complex neocortex than any other animal, making us the most sophisticated in terms of language and abstract thought.
We can see this on how rapidly (in an evolutionary timescale) the cranial capacity expands in hominid species from Australopithicenes up to H. habilis.

Although this has enabled humans to manipulate their environment far more than any other animal, *because* we have greater awareness of ourselves within the universe, arguably this is also a disadvantage in that humans suffer depression, trauma, angst and so on as a result of a sense of futility.

[benelaison]

11:55 Dasein is wrong, correction
Das ein ( Das ain ) = To be there

[mohamedmilad]

But when we approach something objective with subjective agenda, Aren't we at risks of falling into observational bias fallacy, and see what we want to see ( our predictive mind) . Isn't that why we like reading astrology in newspapers, because it tabs into our deep suspicions and expectations. Aren't we just dealing with our throwness angst, giving life A meaning, being in time but determined by the past (unconscious memories) .

[sandrita]

OMG, you really should not explain terms in other languages that you don't speak. Sorry.. OMG! "Being and Time" comes from "Sein und Zeit", it is noun in Heidegger's philosophy, not verb "sein", although we have verb "sein". This is "Sein" with capital leter, meaning "The Existing One", "God", remember what God said to Moses "I am the existing One", He is the only Being with the capital initial letter, but in German ALL THE NOUNS ARE WRITTEN WITH THE CAPITAL INITIAL LETTER, so "Sein und Zeit" no matter if it is the name od the book, so it would be in any case written with the capital letter, but in Heidegger's philosophy it means "The Being"-"The God", only this "Sein" is written with capital leter in his philosophy, therefore the word for human is not "sein" with small letter, but "Dasein", which can be translated like this: "Da" can be translated both as "here" and "there", it depends of context, and "sein" altough is usualy the verb "to be" in Heidegger's philosophy is "the subject that lives, but it is not God", so "We-The Humans", so "dasein" would be "me, you, him, her, all of us who are present "here" or "there" and we live, but we are not God", okay? We are not "Sein". The only "Sein" is God, okay? In Heidegger's philosophy. So "Sein" with capital letter is "God, The Existing One", it is actually from the Greek "ο Ων" that is the name for the "God, The Existing One", and written in small letters "το ων" which means "human, the one who was given the existence but for a period of time, he is not eternal Being, but the life was given to him for a period of time. Okay? Sorry, but I had to react! Excuse my passion.. You Americans should learn some languages.. How can you understand German philosophers without reading them on their language??? Greek too, how??? Greetings from Serbia! ♥

[tbillyjoeroth]

The first 5 minutes, at the very least, are totally wasted. Wittgenstein doesn't prime my pump so we're not covering that.
Heck of a reason, Doc, heck of a reason!
And tge lecture is Heidegger so...youre gonna tell us everything you aren't gonna teach us? Can we move on now?

[johnharding]

If this "professor" is typical of teaching in American tertiary institutions no wonder the standards are so low.