Dwelling

Abstract

In Sein und Zeit, Heidegger is not primarily a philosopher of man but of the world. World here is dealt with as Dasein, the to-be-in-the-world. Authentic Dasein — Dasein as disclosed in its wholeness — is the running-forward-toward-death. In the to-be-in-the-world, as well as in the running-toward-death, Dasein is shown as transcendence. For Heidegger, transcendence means a stepping over the beings and thus a standing in the worldness of the world. Whereas the to-be-in-the-world basically is the inauthentic transcendence, the running-toward-death is the authentic transcendence. The authentic transcendence in Heidegger’s Was ist Metaphysik? is shown as the being-held-in-nothingness.¹ Nothingness here is world. Transcendence, the standing in the world, is the basic feature of man’s being-self. The running-forward-to-death eo ipso is the coming-into-self, into the very essence. Mortality is the essence of man. When man lives a ‘deathless’ life, he is not his own self but merely common-man’s self; he lives inauthentically.