Thomas Sheehan - Making Sense of Heidegger: A Paradigm Shift

(For a complete list, see Bibliographies: Heideggers German Texts and Their English Translations)

SZ = Being and Time (Macquarrie-Robinson)

GA 2 = Being and Time (Stambaugh)

GA 3 = Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics

GA 4 = Elucidations of Hlderlins Poetry

GA 5 = Off the Beaten Track

GA 6 = Pathmarks

GA 8 = What Is Called Thinking?

GA 9 = Pathmarks

GA 10 = The Principle of Reason

GA 11 = Identity and Difference

GA 12 = On the Way to Language

GA 14 = On Time and Being

GA 15 = Heraclitus Seminar 1966/67 and Four Seminars

GA 17 = Introduction to Phenomenological Research

GA 18 = Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy

GA 19 = Platos Sophist

GA 20 = History of the Concept of Time

GA 21 = Logic: The Question of Truth

GA 22 = Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy

GA 24 = The Basic Problems of Phenomenology

GA 25 = Phenomenological Interpretation of Kants Critique of Pure Reason

GA 26 = The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic

GA 27 = Introduction to Philosophy

GA 29/30 = The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics

GA 31 = The Essence of Human Freedom

GA 32 = Hegels Phenomenology of Spirit

GA 33 = Aristotles Metaphysics 13

GA 34 = The Essence of Truth: On Platos Cave Allegory and the Theaetetus

GA 36/37 = Being and Truth

GA 38 = Logic as the Question Concerning the Essence of Language

GA 39 = Hlderlins Hymn Germanien and Der Rhein

GA 40 = Introduction to Metaphysics

GA 41 = What Is a Thing?

GA 42 = Schellings Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom

GA 45 = Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected Problems of Logic

GA 50 = Introduction to PhilosophyThinking and Poetizing

GA 51 = Basic Concepts

GA 53 = Hlderlins Hymn The Ister

GA 54 = Parmenides

GA 56/57 = Towards the Definition of Philosophy

GA 58 = Basic Problems of Phenomenology: Winter Semester 1919/20

GA 59 = Phenomenology of Intuition and Expression

GA 60 = Phenomenology of Religious Life

GA 61 = Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle

GA 63 = Ontology: Hermeneutics of Facticity

GA 64 = The Concept of Time: The First Draft of Being and Time

GA 65 = Contributions to Philosophy: Of the Event

GA 66 = Mindfulness

GA 71 = The Event

GA 77 = Country Path Conversations

GA 79 = Bremen and Freiburg Lectures

GA 85 = On the Essence of Language

1. The Existential Components of Openness and Care

2. , , and lumen naturale in Aristotle and Aquinas

3. Greek Grammar and Is-as-Having-Been

T he haste with which Being and Time was written is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in Heideggers various lists of the existential components of Erschlossenheit (disclosedness), das Da (the open, or openness), In-der-Welt-sein (engagement with meaning), and Sorge (care). In the later pages of the book Heidegger clearly states that Rede (his tentative rendering of in Being and Time) names the whole of ex-sistence when he writes, Only in terms of the temporality of Redethat is, of Dasein in generalcan we clarify how meaning arises. Earlier he had argued that ex-sistence, as open, is structured by Befindlichkeit and Verstehen, and that this bivalent openness is determined by Rede/ (see below, nos. 1.1 through 2.3), and this would seem to be a correct statement of the structure of openness.

However, this clear view begins to fog up whenever Heidegger runs together Befindlichkeit, Verstehen, and Rede as if they were three co-equal components of the open (see nos. 2.42.7).

Heidegger gets back on sure ground when he defines Sorge in terms of the bivalence of (1) Existentialitt-and-Faktizitt on the one hand and (2) Sein bei (which is Verfallenheit in everydayness) on the other, and when he says that this unitary bivalent structure is articulated by Rede. (See 3.1 through 4.1.)

But things get wobbly again when Heidegger runs together Befindlichkeit, Verstehen, Verfallen, and Rede as if they were four co-equal components of disclosedness (nos. 4.2 and 4.3).

1. Only Befindlichkeit and Verstehen

1.1: In Befindlichkeit and Verstehen we see the two equiprimordially constitutive ways of being the open [das Da]. SZ 133.2223 = 171.38172.1.

1.2: The basic existentials that constitute the being of the openthat is, the disclosedness of the engagement-with-meaningare Befindlichkeit and Verstehen. SZ 160.2729 = 203.1719.

1.3: In its being, [ex-sistence] is disclosed to itself. Befindlichkeit and Verstehen constitute the kind of being of this disclosedness. SZ 182.78 = 226.2931.

1.4: Ex-sistence is constituted by disclosedness, that is, by a befindliches Verstehen. SZ 260.3132 = 304.3637.

Redementioned in conjunction withBefindlichkeitandVerstehen

2.1 Befindlichkeit and Verstehen are determined equiprimordially by Rede. SZ 133.2627 = 172.45.

2.2: Rede is existentially equiprimordial with Befindlichkeit and Verstehen. SZ 161.56 = 203.34. Italicized in the German.

2.3: Rede is constitutive for the being of the open, that is, for Befindlichkeit and Verstehen. SZ 165.1213 = 208.2930.

2.4: The theme [of this chapter] has been the ontological constitution of the disclosedness that essentially belongs to ex-sistence. The being [of that disclosedness] is constituted in Befindlichkeit, Verstehen, and Rede. SZ 180.1214 = 224.2830.

2.5: Disclosedness is the basic character of ex-sistence according to which it is its openness [sein Da]. Disclosedness is constituted by Befindlichkeit, Verstehen, and Rede. SZ 220.3134 = 263.1921.

2.6: [Disclosedness] is constituted by Befindlichkeit and Rede along with Verstehen. SZ 295.3233 = 342.1314.

2.7: The third essential moment of disclosedness is Rede. SZ 296.6 = 342.26.

Existentialitt, Faktizitt, andSein bei(orVerfallen)

3.1: The basic ontological characteristics of [ex-sistence] are Existentialitt, Faktizitt, and Verfallensein. SZ 191.2122 = 235.3638.

3.2: Being-already-ahead-of-itself-in-the-world essentially includes ones verfallende Sein bei [things]. SZ 192.3133 = 237.57.

3.3: [Care] means being-ahead-of-itself-already-in-(the-world) as Sein bei (things encountered within the world). SZ 192.3637 = 237.1112.

3.4: The unity of the constitutive moments of careExistentialitt, Faktizitt, and Verfallenheit... SZ 316.3334 = 364.2829.

Verstehen, Befindlichkeit, Verfallen, andRede

4.1: The full disclosedness of the open, which is constituted by Verstehen, Befindlichkeit, and Verfallen, achieves articulation through Rede. SZ 349.56 = 400.1618.

4.2: This disclosedness, as a basic state of that entity which we ourselves are, is constituted by