Reading How Dasein Exists in the World of Being and Time

Abstract

The central theme of Being and Time includes understanding how human beings exist in the world. While the work insightfully addresses this topic, as suggested by its tile, it also leaves room for readers to engage with and expand upon its ideas, particularly regarding how we encounter the world. The following discussion analyzes Heidegger’s conceptualization of the world, a process that integrates key concepts from Being and Time. Our being-in-the world involves a dynamic interplay between projecting possibilities and being conditioned by our circumstances. Human beings are described beings thrown into a world that is structured by a totality of relevance. This means that, even before we explicitly interpret meanings, we bring with us a pre-understanding of significance that shapes how we engage with the world. This pre-understanding discloses a meaningful world grounded in our purposes. By engaging with our possibilities revealed through the pre-understanding, we express care for our own being. In taking care of other beings in the world, we simultaneously project our possibilities. However, these possibilities are factually dependent on and limited by the surrounding world into which we are thrown. In this way, our existence is both shaped by and actively shapes the world we inhabit. Copyright© 2024 ELLAK.