Existentialism was a major philosophical movement in the 20th century that focused on individual existence, freedom, and choice. Martin Heidegger was one of the philosophers associated with existentialism, but he had a complex relationship with the movement.
On the one hand, Heidegger's ideas were foundational for existentialist thinkers. His critique of traditional Western metaphysics, his analysis of human existence and being in the world, and his concepts like anxiety, care, and being-toward-death all influenced existentialist themes. The idea that individuals determine their own development through conscious choices was inspired by Heidegger's concept of authenticity.
However, Heidegger himself resisted the existentialist label. He disagreed with labeling his work as a philosophy focused on the individual human subject. For Heidegger, his project of fundamental ontology went beyond existential questions to look at the nature of Being itself. While his analysis of Dasein (human existence) shared themes with existentialism, Heidegger did not think this was the central purpose of his work.
Additionally, Heidegger disagreed with the atheistic humanism and focus on subjectivity of many existentialist thinkers like Sartre and Camus. He hoped to move away from anthropocentrism by considering the meaning of Being more broadly. His later work looked to go beyond existential questions and transform the way we think about truth, language, poetry, and our relation to technology and nature.
So while Heidegger deeply influenced existentialist thought, he also criticized the movement for misinterpreting his work as primarily concerned with human experience. Heidegger aimed to provide an ontology of Being that went beyond just existentialism. His ambivalent relationship with existentialism continues to be debated by scholars and philosophers today. While deeply linked to the movement thematically, Heidegger ultimately considered his philosophical project as unique.
Basic Ideas:
Phenomenology and Existentialism
Martin Heidegger was a student of Husserl's, but he was formerly a student of theology and more concerned with the deep questions of human existence, than the more abstract questions that fascinated his teacher. (Heidegger later commented that the purpose of philosophy was to "invent a new God.") Heidegger's early work is often referred to as "existentialist," although he himself rejected that affiliation. His first work, Being and Time, 1927, has existentialist themes. The central question of Heidegger's philosophy was the question of “Being."
Dasein:
Heidegger called his philosophy a "fundamental ontology" and began with an examination of "Dasein" - our Being-in-the-World. Unlike Husserl, however, he rejects "'mind" and "consciousness.." But Dasein has an identity crisis. It wants to know “who'' it is.
The quest for Being first of all requires an understanding of "that being through whom the question of Being comes into being," in other words, Dasein. Looking at Dasein from a phenomenological point of view, it is first of all Being-in-the-World.
Unlike Husserl and Descartes, Heidegger says our primordial experience is a unified experience of being in the world. Heidegger would not describe us in the more naturalistic terms of "human being," because from the innocence of the first-person view', the question of what we are in nature remains to be determined.
He does not talk about consciousness or subjectivity.
Heidegger on the World and the Self
From the point of view of Dasein, the world is no longer a mere object of knowledge but a matter of tasks to be done. Yet Heidegger questions the benefits of technology, as well as the disastrous split between the mind and the body.
Heidegger says we are not first of all "knowers." We are, instead, engaged in the world, faced with tasks.
From the point of view of Dasein, it is no longer clear what the self is. Against Descartes.
Heidegger develops the concept of the self as “das man”.
The ordinary self is not the self of Cartesian reflection.
It is not an individual self.
It is an "anonymous"self, a self defined by other people.
The ordinary self is, thus, inauthentic. When we describe ourselves, we refer to the roles we play, or social categories. The das Man self is the social, comparative self. Although it is essential to life, it is not our genuine self.
This view harks back to Kierkegaard's and Nietzsche's attacks on the "herd mentality'' of contemporary society, but Heidegger doesn't accept the extremity of their rejection of everyday social life.
Heidegger's contrasting notion of authenticity comes to play an enormous role in existentialist literature
Heidegger encourages us to be authentic, to "take hold of ourselves."
Heidegger on "Authenticity:"
Heideggerian authenticity requires an adequate recognition and engagement with ourselves.
Heidegger distinguishes three "existential" features of Dasein: existence, facticity, and fallenness.
He also talks about the importance of moods as ways of ‘tuning" into the world. Also essential to authenticity are what Heidegger calls understanding, thinking, and speech (as opposed to mere chitchat).
Heidegger also suggests that the recognition of our own mortality prompts us to authenticity and "historicity."
Existenz is that feature of Dasein through which we envision our possibilities, our future. It is the capacity to make choices. (Heidegger's later philosophy will question this existential concept of choice.)
Facticity consists of the brute facts that characterize us, such as height, weighl, date of birth, and so on. Here is where Heidegger says that we are "thrown" into a world not of our choosing. Our "historicity" is our historical situation.
Fallenness is the·'pre-ontological" way in which Dasein fails to face up to its ontological condition and "falls back" to daily inauthenticity, das Man.
Being-unto-death forces us to see ourselves and our lives as a single unity.
Does that apply to Heidegger and his life?