Existential items

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In addition to categories, existentials are a way of describing being. The concept of the existentials, coined by Martin Heidegger , is reserved for the human being, the existence in Heidegger's parlance. It is essentially connected to Heidegger's program in fundamental ontology .

Basic problem

Heidegger's concern is the fundamental distinction between human existence and things. While tradition had resorted to categories in its determination of the human being, Heidegger sees human existence as the most prominent characteristic. Categories are the most general and most basic descriptions of the properties of things; their quality , quantity , relation and also their substance . The basic problem now is whether or not man should be viewed as one thing among other things. In the classic rules of man as a political animal in Aristotle or rational beings in the Enlightenment or a being of divine origin in theology , man is a property assigned , which can be viewed independently of its existence. Heidegger sees this as an impermissible approach, as we do not consider the existence to be relevant at this point.

Human being, according to Heidegger, cannot be determined with categories, since these relate to a being , but in contrast to this, the human being is a being that only gets its meaning from the fact that it exists . In dealing with Husserl's phenomenological approach, this statement makes clear.

Differentiation from Husserl

Among other things, Husserl's approach provides for describing phenomena by ignoring whether they exist or not. Husserl calls this the epoché . Husserl also uses this epoché indirectly when considering the ego , when he passes from the individual ego to the general being of the ego. While Husserl and Heidegger agree that there is no difference in describing the properties of a real tree or a fantasized tree, they disagree as to whether this applies to any thing. Heidegger rejects Husserl's request if the latter also applies the procedure to an ego . Heidegger criticizes that this would not be sufficient for existence itself, or that an essential part of what man is, is simply excluded. This, according to Heidegger, is not a strict phenomenological procedure, as existence is simply not taken into account. To want to understand people by disregarding the respective individual being is not possible for Heidegger, since existence therefore precedes the being itself. First of all, I exist and only then do certain structures emerge from it. These structures are the existentials.

Accordingly, that existence is the starting point for Heidegger's approach, the analysis of which he describes in fundamental ontology.

Fundamental ontology

Under fundamental ontology Heidegger understands the analysis of existence, aimed at the development of existentials to the task. In his fundamental ontology, Heidegger explains how human existence can be described using existentials. The most important existentials are being- in-the-world , worry , sensitivity , fear , understanding , decay and speech . In a precise analysis of everyday life, Heidegger shows how fundamental general structures of existence can be shown in our everyday being.

Only by looking at the everyday structures of existing people is it possible to describe people phenomenologically , ie without considering previously set theories. The fundamental ontology differs z. B. of biology in that it understands humans as a biological being, which theoretically presupposes the assumption that there are biological beings. But biology is a science with many fundamental hypotheses, e.g. B. the evolutionary assumption. In its approach, fundamental ontology only adheres to the human phenomenon in its everyday existence. In considering this everyday occurrence, Heidegger arrives at the above-mentioned fundamental structures. The constitution of existence is expressed in these structures.

For example, being- in-the-world is a fundamental expression of our basic constitution: we always experience ourselves as in a world and not retrospectively or apart from it, as is assumed, for example, in empiricism , where external things are presupposed are reflected in our consciousness. Objects are familiar to us in their sense and are at hand , as Heidegger puts it, and not abstractly present . Only in a subsequent abstraction do we separate this original being- in-the-world into consciousness and things, into subject and object. This makes things objectified, but loses their everyday meaning.

Another example is that of decay . According to Heidegger, we tend not to look at our real being, but to avoid it. He calls this evasion decay . Because of the burden of existence to carry meaning into the world, we flee from this burden in the man (you say this, you do that, you don't do that etc.), expression of the average everyday life. By submitting to the man , we simultaneously give up responsibility for our being. This inauthenticity is Heidegger the authenticity counter that takes the burden of existence in coming.

Differentiation from "existential"

In contrast to existential, existential has the actual fulfillment of existence as its theme. This also shows the difference to existentialism , which in the form of Jean-Paul Sartre has the anthropological fulfillment of the human being as its theme.

See also

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