Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927) is one of the most challenging and influential philosophical works ever written. It attempts nothing less than a fundamental rethinking of the question of Being—what it means for something to exist at all.
The Forgotten Question of Being
Heidegger begins with a bold claim: Western philosophy has forgotten the question of Being. We talk about beings—things that exist—but we never ask what it means to be. This “forgetting of Being” has characterized philosophy since Plato.
“The question of Being must be restated.”
To approach this question, Heidegger analyzes the one being for whom Being is an issue: human existence, which he calls Dasein.
Dasein: Being-There
Rather than starting with consciousness or a thinking subject, Heidegger analyzes human existence as “Dasein” (literally “being-there”). Dasein is always already engaged with the world, thrown into a situation not of its choosing.
Key Structures of Dasein
Being-in-the-world: We don’t observe the world from outside; we’re always immersed in it. The world isn’t a container we’re placed in but a web of meaningful relationships.
Care (Sorge): Our fundamental mode of being involves concern for our own existence and care about things in the world.
Thrownness (Geworfenheit): We find ourselves already in a situation, shaped by history, culture, and circumstances we didn’t choose.
Projection (Entwurf): We’re always ahead of ourselves, oriented toward possibilities and potential ways of being.
Facticity: We exist as embodied beings with specific characteristics, in a specific place and time.
Authenticity and Inauthenticity
The They (Das Man)
Heidegger distinguishes between authentic and inauthentic existence. Most of the time, we live inauthentically, absorbed in “the They” (das Man)—the anonymous public that dictates how we should think, act, and understand ourselves.
The They manifests in:
- Idle talk: Superficial discourse that avoids genuine understanding
- Curiosity: Restless pursuit of novelty without depth
- Ambiguity: The public interpretation that obscures authentic understanding
Being-Toward-Death
Authentic existence requires confronting our own mortality. Death is our “ownmost possibility”—the one possibility that is absolutely our own and cannot be delegated to others.
“As soon as man comes to life, he is at once old enough to die.”
By facing death as our ownmost, non-relational, certain yet indefinite possibility, we can truly take ownership of our lives and break free from the tyranny of the They.
Anxiety and Authenticity
Anxiety (Angst) reveals our authentic situation. Unlike fear, which has a specific object, anxiety is about existence itself. In anxiety, the everyday world loses its significance, and we confront our own being-in-the-world.
This isn’t pathological but revelatory—a call to authentic existence.
Time and Temporality
The second division of Being and Time analyzes time itself. Ordinary clock time, measured in sequential moments, conceals the original temporality of Dasein.
The Three Ecstases of Temporality
For Heidegger, past, present, and future are not sequential moments but interpenetrating dimensions of our existence:
- Future: We are always ahead of ourselves, projecting toward possibilities
- Past: We are always already shaped by our thrownness
- Present: We are always engaged with the entities we encounter
Original temporality is the meaning of Care—the unity of these three dimensions in our existence.
Key Concepts Summary
| Concept | German | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Dasein | Dasein | Human existence as “being-there” |
| Being-in-the-world | In-der-Welt-sein | Our engaged immersion in meaningful context |
| Care | Sorge | The fundamental structure of Dasein’s being |
| The They | Das Man | Anonymous public that shapes inauthentic existence |
| Thrownness | Geworfenheit | Finding ourselves already in a situation |
| Being-toward-death | Sein-zum-Tode | Authentic confrontation with mortality |
Lasting Influence
Despite—or perhaps because of—its difficulty, Being and Time profoundly influenced:
- Existentialism: Sartre’s Being and Nothingness directly responds to Heidegger
- Hermeneutics: Gadamer developed Heidegger’s insights about interpretation
- Deconstruction: Derrida’s project engages extensively with Heidegger
- Theology: Bultmann and Tillich applied Heideggerian analysis to religious existence
- Psychology: Existential therapy draws on Heideggerian themes
Reading Being and Time
Being and Time is notoriously difficult. Recommendations for readers:
- Read secondary literature first to get oriented
- Don’t expect to understand everything on first reading
- Pay attention to Heidegger’s use of etymology
- Recognize that difficulty is partly intentional—Heidegger wants to break ordinary thinking
- Focus on the existential analysis (Division One) before the temporal analysis
Conclusion
Whether one agrees with Heidegger or not, the questions he raises about existence, meaning, and time remain essential. Being and Time challenges us to examine our own existence with rigor and honesty, to confront our mortality, and to ask what it truly means to be.