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Being is that on the basis of which entities are already understood.
We already understand what it is to be in the sense that we are always already coping with entities that are.
Being is the "background"
Being is that entities are intelligible
Being is not the sense we make out of entities but rather being is the taken-for-granted background which allows us to make that sense out of those entities.
So being is the background structures that allow us to have know-how / skill / competence.
Distinctions
Know-how Vs. Know-that
Know-how
Know-that
Adequate #description #capture of experience
Embodied intelligibility
Examples:
This #is a tea mug.
That #is a galaxy.
This #is me, this #is you.
I #am , you #are , he she or it #is , to #be or not to #be .
Start here
What is #is ?
(ie. what is being?)
And why does that matter?
Related Medium.com article is here
Powerpoint slides are here
What is a being? Vs. What is being?
#A being is an #entity – essentially “an anything”
Heidegger’s question: Ok, so we know what “a being” is, but that doesn’t tell us what #being is.
It doesn’t?
No. It doesn’t.
Aside: Know-that vs. Know-how
Know-that – knowing that such and such is the case
propositional
#validity criteria : is it true or isn’t it? (or not well-formed etc.)
Know-how – knowing how do to something, in the sense of being able to do it
embodied “skilful coping” “skilful dealing” “skilful activity”
transparent / withdraws
#validity criteria : can you do it or can’t you?
wholistic
What the philosophical tradition (e.g. since Plato) either thinks or assumes that being is (ie. that is is)
Self-sufficient substances
with self-sufficient properties
What being is is assumed
#Where should we #start from to figure out what being is?
Descriptions that adequately capture :
our normal everyday experience
structures that underly our experience
our behaviour and know-how
all of the above is a.k.a “the phenomena”
Where else could we start from?
Naturalism
~ advocates use of the scientific method as our starting point
“an objective scientific view-from-nowhere”
Philosophically, naturalism doesn’t work:
The rest of this talk shows why.
What Heidegger thinks is isn’t:
(ie. what being isn’t)
#A being
being itself is not a particular being
especially not the Supreme Being
Beingness
The most general possible of all categories of beings
Only self-sufficient substances with properties
There are other types of being as well
What Heidegger thinks is is:
(a first approximation)
“being is that on the basis of which, beings (entities) are already understood.” (SZ pp.150)
What Heidegger means by “already understood” is ~=
background embodied intelligibility
our capacity to make sense of beings by dealing with them
“know-how”
“like water to the fish”
Examples:
We “already understand” a tea mug by using it to drink tea or make a mug of tea for someone.
We make sense of trees by admiring their beauty.
We make sense of people by talking to them, co-operating with them, making friends and enemies, making-up communities, ...
The story so far: Two kinds of taken-for-granted
(1) “We” have a #taken-for-granted way of conceptualizing the world.
(2) “We” have a #taken-for-granted way of behaving in and experiencing the world.
(1) is not consistent with (2)
(1) implies one kind of being (says B&T Heidegger)
(2) implies three kinds of being (says B&T Heidegger)
#Three #kinds of being (background embodied intelligibility):
#Self-sufficient substances – present-at-hand – “vorhanden”
#Equipment – ready-to-hand – “zuhanden”
#Ourselves – being-the-there – “dasein” – existence
the being that takes a stand on its own being
the being whose essence is its existence
being-in-the-world
“dasein is its world existingly”
What is #equipment ? – “zuhanden”
#Not
self-sufficient substances with properties;
objects with properties;
#Equipment is
#wholistic
when it’s working well, I #don’t #notice it
Couldn’t we just add function properties to substances to get equipment?
No.
What are #we ? – “dasein”
#Not
a self-sufficient substance with properties;
a subject, an object, a “res cogitans” (not a thinking thing);
a mind, a soul, a body;
Dasein is:
“being the there”
“dasein is its world existingly.” (SZ pp.)
#“being-in-the-world”.
#familiarity
#wholistic
Which type of being is more fundamental?
#Present-at-hand substances are #causally more fundamental than “ready-to-hand” equipment.
#Ready-to-hand equipment is more fundamental in respect of #intelligibility - practically making sense of the world.
Natural science is a process of
“de-worlding” aspects of our world
The connection between humans and the world
is not primarily mediated either by perception or cognition or even a combination of both;
...rather it is primarily mediated via skilful activity.
Science is a set of practices designed to reveal:
a world (of substances) that is independent of any of our practices.
Now we see why naturalism fails:
Science is dependent on know-how for its production:
to de-world ready-to-hand equipment and resources so as to discover present-at-hand substances.
In order to understand how science is possible
you need to understand Heidegger’s other two types of being,
which science actively works to exclude.
Implications for the philosophical tradition
We are the kind of being that is always already in-the-world.
Once we have more adequate descriptions of what being is,
epistemological scepticism about the “existence of the external world” does not get any grip on us.
Sources / recommended reading / viewing:
2007 Lecture Series by late Prof. Hubert Dreyfus of U.C. Berkeley
“Heidegger’s Being and Time”, by Prof. William Blatner
“Being and Ontotheology”, lecture by Prof Mary-Jane Rubinstein
“Groundless Ground”, by Prof. Lee Braver
“Skilful coping”, by late Prof. Hubert Dreyfus of U.C. Berkeley
#substances - "vorhanden" - present-at-hand
This should be familiar !
Self-sufficient substances with self-sufficient properties !
Not just the substances that are self-sufficient, but the properties that inhere (as in inherent) in them are self-sufficient too.
Substances independent of each other.
Properties independent of each other too.
Remove slide 3 [a being vs. being itselfrom the presentation
I need some concrete illustrations of what it is like being a dasein ?
Should I include "that on the basis of which being is already understood" slide?