Graduate 145: BT 17: Sec. 11
Part 1, Division 1, Chapter 1. Exposition of the Task of a Preparatory Analysis of Dasein.
Section 11. The Existential Analytic and the Interpretation of Primitive Dasein. The Difficulties of Achieving a 'Natural Conception of the World'
We have already indicated that Heidegger's investigation will involve examining Dasein in its most proximal mode of being--that is, everydayness. [1] Here Heidegger attempts to clarify what is involved in this. The first major point that he makes it that everydayness is not the same thing as primitiveness. He is not attempting to give an account of human beings in their 'state of nature' or as they were prior to the development of advanced cultures or civilizations. Rather, everydayness belongs to people in very modern societies and the opportunity to pursue other possible ways of being besides everydayness is even open to primitives. There are certain advantages to investigating primitive man--the relevant phenomena are often less concealed by the edifice of accumulated-culture, history, tradition, and self-consciousness over time. "A way of conceiving things which seems, perhaps, rather clumsy and crude from our standpoint, can be positively helpful in bringing out the ontological structures of phenomena in a genuine way." (BT 76/51) But, again, Heidegger will not pursue the investigation of the primitive.
He points out that the information that we have accumulated about primitives has been provided by ethnologyy which presupposes a certain conception and interpretation of human Dasein in general. So there is the same kind of problem in drawing upon the ethnologist's insight as there was in drawing upon the biologist's or psychologist's insight. "Ethnology itself already presupposes as its clue an inadequate analytic of Dasein." (BT 76/51) This is not to say that ethnology should be halted until an adequate ontological foundation of Dasein can be offered; but it does emerge from this, as a goal of our inquiry, that the foundation we offer helps to contextualize ethnology and the other sciences of man.
Heidegger identifies as one of the most persistent problems, facing an investigation of this kind at the outset, the need to "work out the idea of a 'natural conception of the world'". (BT 76/52) It might seem that the vast quantity of knowledge about the many and different cultures of the world would help this process, but that is not actually the case. It is not enough, to grasp the natural conception of the world, to take all the various conceptions that are out there are categorize them and combine them 'syncretistically'. That would not guarantee that we actually understand the things that we are organizing and ordering.
"If an ordering principle is genuine, it has its own content as a thing [Sachgehalt], which is never to be found by means of such ordering, but is already presupposed in it. So if one is to put various pictures of the world in order, one must have an explicit idea of the world as such. And if the 'world' itself is something constitutive for Dasein, one must have an insight into Dasein's basic structures in order to treat the world-phenomenon conceptually." (BT 77/52)
This chapter has been focused on promoting a "correct understanding of the tendency which underlies the following Interpretation and the kind of questions which it poses." (BT 77/52) It will not yield knowledge of entities in the same way that other disciplines do. Rather, it has a goal all of its own, "if indeed, beyond the acquiring of information about entities, the question of Being is the spur for all scientific seeking." (BT 77/52)
--
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Graduate 133: BT 07: Sec. 05 and Graduate 143: BT 15: Sec. 09.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
Section 11. The Existential Analytic and the Interpretation of Primitive Dasein. The Difficulties of Achieving a 'Natural Conception of the World'
We have already indicated that Heidegger's investigation will involve examining Dasein in its most proximal mode of being--that is, everydayness. [1] Here Heidegger attempts to clarify what is involved in this. The first major point that he makes it that everydayness is not the same thing as primitiveness. He is not attempting to give an account of human beings in their 'state of nature' or as they were prior to the development of advanced cultures or civilizations. Rather, everydayness belongs to people in very modern societies and the opportunity to pursue other possible ways of being besides everydayness is even open to primitives. There are certain advantages to investigating primitive man--the relevant phenomena are often less concealed by the edifice of accumulated-culture, history, tradition, and self-consciousness over time. "A way of conceiving things which seems, perhaps, rather clumsy and crude from our standpoint, can be positively helpful in bringing out the ontological structures of phenomena in a genuine way." (BT 76/51) But, again, Heidegger will not pursue the investigation of the primitive.
He points out that the information that we have accumulated about primitives has been provided by ethnologyy which presupposes a certain conception and interpretation of human Dasein in general. So there is the same kind of problem in drawing upon the ethnologist's insight as there was in drawing upon the biologist's or psychologist's insight. "Ethnology itself already presupposes as its clue an inadequate analytic of Dasein." (BT 76/51) This is not to say that ethnology should be halted until an adequate ontological foundation of Dasein can be offered; but it does emerge from this, as a goal of our inquiry, that the foundation we offer helps to contextualize ethnology and the other sciences of man.
Heidegger identifies as one of the most persistent problems, facing an investigation of this kind at the outset, the need to "work out the idea of a 'natural conception of the world'". (BT 76/52) It might seem that the vast quantity of knowledge about the many and different cultures of the world would help this process, but that is not actually the case. It is not enough, to grasp the natural conception of the world, to take all the various conceptions that are out there are categorize them and combine them 'syncretistically'. That would not guarantee that we actually understand the things that we are organizing and ordering.
"If an ordering principle is genuine, it has its own content as a thing [Sachgehalt], which is never to be found by means of such ordering, but is already presupposed in it. So if one is to put various pictures of the world in order, one must have an explicit idea of the world as such. And if the 'world' itself is something constitutive for Dasein, one must have an insight into Dasein's basic structures in order to treat the world-phenomenon conceptually." (BT 77/52)
This chapter has been focused on promoting a "correct understanding of the tendency which underlies the following Interpretation and the kind of questions which it poses." (BT 77/52) It will not yield knowledge of entities in the same way that other disciplines do. Rather, it has a goal all of its own, "if indeed, beyond the acquiring of information about entities, the question of Being is the spur for all scientific seeking." (BT 77/52)
--
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Graduate 133: BT 07: Sec. 05 and Graduate 143: BT 15: Sec. 09.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 2:31 PM
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