Sunday, April 19, 2009

Authentic Heidegger

I see Heidegger working in this way to do a number of things. Chief among these is the problem of separating "us" from "they". Perhaps this is not so much Heidegger's intent as what I am reading into him. The question is: where does our conscious come from, and how does it relate to being-authentic. In this sense, there is a difference between what is going on inside, our inner voice, this "caller", the conscious, and the mere echoing of the Other, the "they". Conscious is both a caller and the called, in short, I feel that it is a way of understanding - a way of understanding which leads us to authentic existence. Heidegger spoke in another piece about the Tao; I think that there is a certain Tao to understanding the way in which the conscious speaks to us in order that we might be authentic, or exist in an authentic manner. Authenticity implies choice; but Dasein cannot make choices - but Dasein can listen, and when we listen to the call, we are, in fact, making a choice. Conscious is disclosedness, as Heidegger puts it. Dasein seeks this disclosedness, or rather, it runs from it, in the misguided notion that to run from disclosedness is freedom, but should seek it in order to be authentic, and hence truly free. To be authentic is to live in disclosedness. By living in accord with the conscious, we become disclosed, and thus, authentic beings-in-the-world.

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