TIME & PLACE

Self and world belong together in the single entity, Dasein. Self and world are not two entities, like subject and object…but self and world are the basic determination of Dasein itself in the unity of the structure of being-in-the-world Martin Heidegger

As we’ve seen, Dasein defines man as “Being-There,” in a place as well as a time, a place in which living really happens. This place includes the physical body and its surrounds.

From Dasein’s place he encounters the world, as a Being-in-the -World. As such, Dasein’s place of being is fundamental to his essential being. Dasein cannot be thought of without thinking about the world seen from where he stands. Once this is understood, Cartesian and Kantian views of man crumble to ashes.

In Heideggerian terms what is truly Existential about us is not only our “thrownness,” but that being thrown entails or results in a time and place of being. Thrownness is our ontological limit. Concepts of freedom must, therefore, be contextualized in terms of the limit to our essential freedom. Again, this limit is unthought by Metaphysics, Idealism, Rationalism, and other schools of philosophy.

Heidegger's conception of thrownness is precisely a denial that Dasein is free in any radical, unconditioned sense – Taylor Carman

Although we are not consciously aware of this limit, we are inclined to intuitively wish to exceed it. Hence religion, supernaturalism, paranormalism, séance and out-of-body spiritualism. Today we try escaping it via digital interfaces and “virtual realities.” It’s all rather futile since no one can escape thrownness or death.

We must find ourselves within the limit imposed by our thrownness. What freedom we know and who we become must be in the context we actually experience.

Using the German word Dasein, Heidegger draws attention to how we experience the world and its objects and entities. Crucially, we do not relate to the world as if we are outside or beyond it. We exist in and amongst the things of the world, and are deeply involved with the world, which is at all times an interpreted world or web of “significance.” This is the world we find ourselves in, and what we care about.

Key to Dasein’s beinghood is Da, his thereness. Dasein is literally a being who is always in a space or clearing. More correctly, we are a space or clearing. From our place of being we “overlap” with the larger world. Said differently, the world makes it possible for us to be Da - a space or microcosmic-world within a world.

In Heideggerian terms, Being (Sein) shows up in the Da or clearing that is Dasein. Being becomes a question because it presences in and as the Da (or space) that is Dasein.

Dasein becomes Da-sein, dwelling in the expanse that has been opened – Barbara D. Pezze

If and when Dasein sets out to question Being, it is from his place that he does so. That place or clearing becomes something very special in relation to Being. It partakes, as it were, in the Truth of Being. It’s where Being itself calls for the Question of Being to arise within Dasein’s being.

We were born at a certain place, and when we die it will also be at a certain place. So, it goes with other critical moments in life. It’s no different with the Mystery of Being. It is impossible, thought Heidegger, to conceive of it in any other way. Whatever life-questions I ask, and whatever meaningful events happen, even if I’m merely sitting at my kitchen table, overlooking a beautiful valley or experiencing my first romantic kiss, my place is not to be forgotten or minimized in importance.

There is not one space and time only, but as many spaces and times as there are subjects – Ludwig Binswanger

Place was as important as Time for Heidegger. No one else occupies the space on which I stand and know myself as a Self. Our bodies are ‘’contained’’ within the universe and apparently the Self is ‘’contained’’ within the body. When we pour milk from a bottle or jar into a glass, the milk goes from one container to another, and not over the floor. Heidegger wants us to become more aware of space and what it contains and enables. Any encounter with Being, will occur where we are, and no where else. Even to speak of Being’s absence, is to infer the place of that absence. Simply stated, as Dasein I am not only Being-in-the-World, I am being in my World.