indexing

thesis indexing

Notes on Heidegger Part 1

Ever looked up into the starry sky on a clear night? The effect can be jarring. The sight of countless burning balls of matter occupying infinite space soon forces us to begin considering our own finitude. Our world, Earth, is just a tiny rock circling one of these stars. We occupy but a small fragment of Earth, which itself is less than a blip in the history of the universe. Our whole lives; past, present and future; begin to seem like a fleeting moment.

Beyond that, we may begin to understand ourselves as an amalgamation of atomic particles, somehow formed into a human being. Somehow, from within these particles, a mind exists. Which, in turn, is able to grapple with its own insignificance.

Socrates would have been satisfied with such a view. His famous adage, "the unexamined life is not worth living" calls on us to ponder the limitations of our existence from the perspective of disinterested objectivity. Socrates thought this made him the smartest man in Athens, because while others let themselves be consumed with everyday trivialities, confident that they had mastered their own worlds, Socrates maintained that what they had mastered was not really much at all, and the true significance of the world was so infinitely vast that the wisest approach was to celebrate what you didn't--or couldn't-- know.

For Heidegger, this kind of approach to existence is a fundamentally flawed one. We do not enter into the world as disinterested beings, groping for an objective understanding of our situation. The starting point for Heidegger instead is the human being engaged and occupied by the world around them. Positing ourselves as atomic particles, existing on a rock in infinite space is a perfectly valid scientific view, but it should not be where philosophy begins. Rather, it entails a stepping back, out of our own active and engaged lives. The establishment of some kind of separation between what we are most of the time and the ponderous attitude of the scientific mind.

The more fundamental question for Heidegger, before we start thinking about how we contemplate the world from the sort of God's eye view that this entails, is the view we start with, as active beings thrown into our worlds and engaged with them throughout our life. Heidegger called this view the view of Dasein, the point of view of a being who is in the world, not standing apart from it.

So what does Dasein do? Dasein exists in a world of possibilities. The objects Dasein encounters are not inanimate clumps of matter, rather they are embodied possibilities for action, the other humans Dasein encounters are not organic lifeforms, rather they are other Daseins, with possibilities all of their own. Dasein is thus faced with choices. Dasein must also make these choices from the situation it finds itself in. The situation, for Dasein, opens out like a field of possibility rather than a plane of objects.

There also comes the point when Dasein must come to terms with itself. For the most part, we live our lives engaged with the world around us, making use of them as tools of our everyday existence and never stopping to contemplate. Sometimes, however, this breaks down. Maybe our tools don't fit the task at hand, maybe the things aren't as clear as they seem. This forces Dasein to confont itself and understand its role as Dasein. In the moments when Dasein understands itself, it is forced to make choices about its own actions. It is forced to make choices about its own choices.

Connected to this is Heidegger's consideration of authenticity and inauthenticity. We are thrown, for the most part, into inauthentic lives, that is, we make our choices based on what fits convention and social expectation. When Dasein confronts itself however, the potential opens up to make a choice based not on what is socially acceptable but on what is true to our own being. In effect, we can choose to make authentic choices.

This is why the night sky is so jarring. Not because it forces us to confront our Dasein, on the contrary, it separates us from our Dasein. In our contemplation, we leave our embodied everyday lives, our world as possibilities and our choices for action, and begin to understand the world as inert and objective, determined by the movements of atoms and the laws of physics. This kind of view is perfectly valid, Heidegger would say, but it takes place after the fact of our everyday being. It is the exception rather than the rule. A more fundamental understanding of our existence cannot start from this point, rather it begins where we are aware of it least. Where we a doing without even thinking. This is the basis of our lives.

The Identity Market

Sub-cultures are becoming less and less underground.
Alternative identity choices are no longer really about rejecting a perceived mainstream and more about shopping for desired identity in a marketplace of identities. The mainstream has more or less co-opted its detractors as consumption choices.
Welcome to late capitalism.

Private Utopias

I wonder if anyone has writen about this before...
It seems to me that history is full of people putting their hopes in utopias. This comes through in its most obvious guises and religious conceptions of heaven, or nirvana. Perhaps obtainable through a life of peity, or by the discrimination of God.
Utopian is also an obvious presence in political projects. Socialism, Liberalism, Conservative all have their fair share of utopias.
In recent times, aspirations in political goals have seemed to have waned. Few people ever longer hope for a socialist utopia round the corner.
My question is, has this been supplanted with private utopias? These utopias are the outcome of a more individualist, celf-centred self of modern times. Do people now, instead of placing their hopes and dreams in collective or devine utopias, set themselves personal, utopian goals? For example, somebody hoping that the completion of their studies will lead to a perfect world. It could come through work, or family or through things like fitness. Are these goals less stable simply because they are realisable and measurable? Does this contribute to loss of meaning in modernity?

Calvinism and Environmentalism

Thinking about whether forms of the Calvinist concept of the elect are reappearing in new formations. For example; environmentalism. Environmentalists demonstrate through their consumption choices that they are aware of thier impact on the environment and attempting to ameliorate it. Is this a viable solution to environmental problems, or are they simply driven by guilt over the original sin of being born into a consumptionist society? Do consumption choices serve as a demonstration to themselves and others that they are part of the 'solution' (ie a member of the elect). How does this relate to the doctrines of Protestantism that Weber spoke about in The Protestant Ethic? Is this a middle class phenonmenon? Have old middle class values changed in the face of the 'death of God' and modern preoccupations with the failures of our society?

Fuel is runnung iut