Creative Questioning, Being-With and Transcending in Heidegger

Abstract

In this chapter, d’Agnese analyses three features of Heidegger’s thought: creative questioning, being-with and transcending. The Chapter draws attention to the Heideggerian analysis of existence and Dasein’s constitution, arguing that existence and selfhood must be understood as always-already transcending and as always-already moving forward. Otherwise stated, whatever the Dasein thinks or does, whatever its aims and purposes are, it exists and acts as a being always-already projected beyond itself, always-already crossing over. Such a condition is as much displacing as it is educationally promising. Following a Heideggerian path, in fact, we see that when living and educating, we find ourselves in a radically open realm of possibility. In this chapter, d’Agnese also shows that Dasein’s being is a thoroughly being-with. In Heideggerian understanding, knowledge, cognition and thinking are only possible on the ground of Mitda-sein. Moreover, challenging a longstanding tradition that, starting from Socrates’ precept, continues in different ways with Augustine, Descartes and Kant, Heidegger boldly states that to gain any significant understanding of oneself, pure introspection is least helpful; knowing oneself, in Heideggerian thought, is grounded in primordially understanding being-with.