The Meaning of Being (original) (raw)
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HEIDEGGER AND THE MEANING OF BEING
This paper is about different ways of understanding the notion of ontology, and about correspondingly different senses of 'being'. Heidegger is renowned for probing the question of the meaning of being, but also for writing in a fashion that is immensely obscure and confusing, largely on account of the fact that the word 'being' is used so often and in so many different ways. My hope in this paper is to clarify some of his central uses of the notion, and to offer a reading of his work that displays the way his expression of his philosophical views was forced to change in order to approach the conception of ontology he was trying to communicate.
A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF ONTIC-ONTOLOGICAL DISTINCTION OF BEING IN HEIDEGGER
Ifiok: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2024
Heidegger, interpreting notion of Being from a phenomenological standpoint declares that it is that which discloses itself exactly as it is. Being is not merely Being for its own sake, it is always the Being of some entity. And there is a being whose task it is to so define Being. That is Dasein-the entity to whom the question of meaning of Being is posed, contemplated and rendered. Being is definable by Dasein because it (Dasein) is both ontically and ontologically constituted. But what does ontic and ontological composition of Dasein mean? How does the nature prepare Dasein for definition or interpretation of Being? What does the interpretation portend for Reality or the world? This essay applies critical and analytical methods of philosophical inquiry to respond to these questions.
Beingness, Phenomenological Ontology and Communication
Emmaus, 2020
studied and graduated with a Doctorate in Social Communication specializing in Communication Theology at the Pontifical University of Salesianum in Rome-Italy. Some of his publications can be found on his website: charlesndhlovu.wordpress.com; he is also on Youtube (Fr. Charles Ndhlovu-Mkhalirachiuta). He is the founder and proprietor of Emmaus. In this paper, he has argued that communication about the Dasein is not only categorical but also transcendental. Heidegger's understanding of the Dasein is complicated but interesting. Heidegger believed in the existence of a being-in-the-world which reaches self-awareness by raising "the question of Being in a world of sensible objects." 1 This means that one comes to the awareness of being through questioning. This questioning and being, takes place in the world-in a world of sensibility and categorical experience. That is why, this being is the Being-in-the-situation (Geschehen) also referred to as being there (Dasein). It is simply an event or a happening that leads to being-out-of-the-situation (Geschichte) which is a project towards which human life is projected. Being-in-the-situation is essentially being out, which is ek-sistence into history. Some people like to link this understanding of being with Heidegger's "phenomenological ontology, which is evident in this concern with man's conscious pre-grasp of his spirit's Horizon, [that] also appears in the importance which Rahner places on the role of freedom in man's authentic grasp of himself, his world, and the world's Horizon." 2 Beingness is conceived of in the world of existence-it is conceived of in the existential situation-in the world of categorical experience. Beingness is ek-sistence because it takes place in history. That is why, the communication of Beingness cannot only be limited to Dasein that is being in the world or being out but also to phenomenological ontology. Blending the thoughts of Thomas Aquinas, Martin Heidegger and Maréchal, one would say that human beings are radically spatio-temporal-that is, situated in-the-World and therefore in-Time but essentially and existentially oriented towards Absolute Being as manifested in the ontological urge to question. This projection or movement towards Absolute Being and happiness is basically the Vorgriff. The Vorgriff, is that movement to and from the Dasein, to Absolute Mystery. A movement in which the human person, not only realises himself or herself, but also comes to himself and herself. This is the Vorgriff and any communication about the Vorgriff, takes into account the spatio-temporality of the human person. 1 McCOOL (Ed.), A Rahner reader, XVI. 2 McCOOL (Ed.), A Rahner reader, XIII-XIV.
Serious Philosophy, 2019
Was Heidegger really doing philosophy or something else? This essay explores that question and examines the differences between his approach to philosophical inquiry and that which characterizes the analytical tradition in Anglo-American thought, asking whether there are points of connection or whether the disconnections are so great as to render them quite different enterprises.
Classical Greek ontology (metaphysics) maintains a rigid view of Being as the only reality there is. It further regards man basically as an object with a fixed nature that is susceptible to scientific investigation. Though these thoughts dominated the ancient Greeks' orientation just as it is doing to the contemporary European and American worlds, Heidegger strongly objects these misconceptions by purging them from his metaphysics. He argues that the confusion about Being is eminent due to the neglect of man as the necessary being. This paper therefore, is an assessment of Heidegger's attempt to free man from the freeze of traditional metaphysics. It espouses Heidegger's radicalization of the human being's intrinsic potentials and capabilities to further advance the self and knowledge as a conscious being that necessarily exists. Dasein or man is primarily, a self-making or meaning-making being and not a foreclosed entity.