The Heideggerian Dasein: The Human Being as a Context for Meaning

Understanding ourselves and the world.

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There are many ways to approach the study of philosophy. One way is through its history. Another might be through its branches or schools. Yet, another could be by examining one philosopher’s work. I want to focus on a specific philosopher for this article: Martin Heidegger.

In “Being and Time,” he explores the idea of Dasein — being-there as an entity that is always in a world with meaning around it. This means that anything can happen at any time. Making thinking about our Being-in-the-world all the more difficult because we never know what will come next. When you think about it, Heideggerian Dasein has no control over their own life because they are being thrown around by circumstances and going from one moment to the next.