PART ONE
The Interpretation of Da-sein in Terms of Temporality and the Explication of Time as the Transcendental Horizon of the Question of Being

DIVISION ONE: The Preparatory Fundamental Analysis of Da-sein

'What is primarily interrogated in the question of the meaning of being is that being which has the character of Da-sein.' [41]

Preparation
Being-in-the-World
Being-In
Worldliness
Being-With
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'Preparation'
I. The Exposition of the Task of a Preparatory Analysis of Da-sein

Standing Out
Not a Thing
A Red Herring
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'In keeping with its uniqueness, the preparatory existential analytic of Da-sein itself needs a prefigurative exposition and delimitation from investigations which seem to run parallel.'

'Standing Out'
§9: The Theme of the Analytic of Da-sein [42-45]

Two key points:

  1. The 'essence' of Da-sein 'lies in its to be... its existence'
  2. The being of Da-sein is always 'my own'.

Heidegger declares Da-sein's defining characteristic to be that it is concerned about, must take a stand on, its being (this almost amounts to a definition of Da-sein). Da-sein is not an objectively present being with objectively present attributes. Da-sein alone exists, i.e. 'stands out' from its own occurrence in the world and observes itself: this is its unique 'essence'.

The being which Da-sein is concerned about in its being 'is always my own', to be always in this or that way, and Da-sein can 'choose' itself in its being.

There are two formally disjunctive ways of being, viz. authentic and inauthentic. Authentic being is not better than inauthentic. Being is authentic strictly because it is revealing of Da-sein. The meaning of Da-sein is one who reflects on its existence: authentic being is in accord with this meaning because it is the mode of existence in which one is aware of one's own existence.

Analysing the existence of Da-sein starts with its average everyday experience. This indifferent averageness is not nothing: 'all existing is how it is out of this kind of being, and back into it.' This existence is ontically so near that it becomes ontologically invisible - this makes the analysis especially demanding.

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'Not a Thing'
§10: How the Analytic of Da-sein is to be Distinguished from Anthropology, Psychology, and Biology [45-50]

Descarte's discussion of his cogito sum concentrates exclusively on the 'cogito' leaving the manner of being (the 'sum') of the 'subject' obscure. Underlying the Cartesian tradition is an assumed person/soul/spirit/consciousness with an unquestioned objective presence. Acknowledging the uniqueness of human subjects, the classical anthropologies of the ancient world and Christianity posit higher endowments of rationality and transcendence (man made in 'the image of God'). The manner of being of this 'bodily-soul-like-spiritual unity' remains undetermined (indeed, the question is forgotten) so that, by default, objective presence is unquestioningly assumed. Heidegger restates his basic insight that Da-sein (he will not use the familiar words with all their misguiding overtones) is not objectively present but 'is' in a distinctive way. Da-sein - which is not a thing, substance or object - alone 'exists'.

In the face of the cogito sum Heidegger is saying 'I know that I am; but what does that mean, to know that I am?'

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'A Red Herring'
§11: The Existential Analytic and the Interpretation of Primitive Da-sein: The Difficulties in Securing a "Natural Concept of the World" [51-52]

'Everydayness is not the same thing as primitiveness'. There is precisely nothing to be gained by turning to primitive cultures when investigating the question of the meaning of being.

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