PHIL 474 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Dasein, Ontic, Martin Heidegger
12 Jun 2018
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Dasein is the clue for understanding Being
Via negativa: a negative way, used primarily in the medieval mystical tradition
They ask, who is God? And they attribute particular characteristics to God
Mystical traditions take on a via negativa
We say: God has these characteristics…
EX: God is truth or God is love…
These are positive attributions that one makes
But they’re always tied into an analogy with us
We have a tendency to transfer ontic characteristics of ourselves onto God
In the ontification of God, there’s a risk, as though we know God
In the mystical tradition, there’s a risk of that
So they develop via negativa: they say don’t take God as this
They say: God is not…
Because language capture what God is like
Don’t take predicate judgments of God to be God
You can actually reverse them: God is not being
Mystical writings tend to use the negative way of thinking, which tells us something
about God
Heidegger pushes negatively against characterizations that are too ontic
The first two chapters, there’s a kind of negativity
He’s saying, yes we’ll look at Dasein differently
There’s a being-in-the-world that’s marked by existence
Heidegger is interested in the way in which Dasein is actually in the world
He tells us that the world is already a network of Being in which Dasein finds itself
We are always are discovering ourselves in a meaningful world
We’re already in a meaningful world if we doubt it
We’re already embedded – this is something so important
Meaning is something we already have, we just don’t know how we have it
Concern = Besorge
To be concerned with
The world is the referential totality
Referential totality doesn’t mean that we get outside it
Within the network, which is ever shifting and expanding, we experience meaning as a
whole
Meaning does not come out of parts
We experience meaningful things as a whole
Meaning network in which we already find ourselves is already there
It’s a pre-condition for choice
Spatiality is a function of concern, not a geometriality
First, we look at Dasein as being-of-the-world – think of it as a function of concern
Even Newton was in an already constituted world
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Document Summary
Via negativa: a negative way, used primarily in the medieval mystical tradition. Ex: god is truth or god is love . But they"re always tied into an analogy with us. We have a tendency to transfer ontic characteristics of ourselves onto god. In the ontification of god, there"s a risk, as though we know god. In the mystical tradition, there"s a risk of that. So they develop via negativa: they say don"t take god as this. Don"t take predicate judgments of god to be god. You can actually reverse them: god is not being. Mystical writings tend to use the negative way of thinking, which tells us something about god. Heidegger pushes negatively against characterizations that are too ontic. The first two chapters, there"s a kind of negativity. He"s saying, yes we"ll look at dasein differently. Heidegger is interested in the way in which dasein is actually in the world.
