"Dasein"

     Martin Heidegger’s main interest was to raise the issue of “being”, that is, “Dasein” mentioned in “Being and Time”. Heidegger was concerned that philosophy should e capable of telling us the meaning of Being, of what “Dasein”  is, and for him, “Dasein” exists in only two modes: authenticity and inauthenticity. 

     Heidegger believes that Authentic existence can only come into being when individuals arrive at the realization of who they are and know the fact that each human being is a distinctive entity and charactered by uniqueness. Once human beings realize that they have their own goals to fulfill, then their concern with the world will no longer be the concerns of the majority, but instead, an “authentic’ concern to fulfill their individual pursuits. 

     However, Heidegger, on the other hand, points out such state of “authenticity’ is barely understood by the society. Therefore, he criticizes that “We were born into a world of quiet conformity. Initially everything we do and say and think and believe have been done and said and thought and believed before. The activities we regard as worthy of our time and effort (learning, work, play), the ultimate values and meanings we pursue (achievement, love, children), and the particular styles and forms thru which we pursue these goals have all been provided by our various human cultures.” Here, Heidegger was aware that people always ignore, or adjust, the personal pursuits to meet the standard of the mainstream society. As a result, we may come to exist not on our own terms, but only in reference to others. By doing so, we will ultimately live our lives with the wills of others, and transformed our unique existence to a common “They-self”. For Heidegger, such way of living represents an “inauthentic” way of existence since we lead lives for “they-selves”  rather than “our-selves”. 

     In the last part of the quote, Heidegger further questions that “How different our lives are from the lives of ancient ‘cavemen”. For me, it is true that we are born into a world of conformity for that we value the community and unit, and most of our ideas and actions are based on what have been said and taught. However, I don’t quite believe that people today think and act exactly the same way as our ancestors did, because we are making progress by never ceasing to reform the society. The difference between our ancestors and ourselves is that ancestors establish a primitive society and taught us the very basic living skills, but people today are able to add fresh elements to our society and make it more advanced, acceptable and comprehensive.