A Critical Evaluation of Martin Heidegger’s Concept of Being
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF STUDY
Heidegger lashed out at his predecessors and accused them of forgetfulness of Being. Our purpose here is to critically assess the reasons behind Heidegger’s accusation and then see whether he succeeded in reconstructing Being positively.
Further more, the question of Being has been very elusive and difficult to grasp. Much as the history of philosophy is riddled with bad answers that need requestioning. What is Being? Remains a question to be now and again restated in new vocabularies, given new circumstances. It is therefore our intention to re-examine and re-evaluate old questions within the context of contemporary experiences. The contemporary experience seems to be based on concrete issues and questions and not on abstract entities like Being and non-Being.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The first book under review here is titled Heidegger: A Beginner’s Guide, authored by Michael Watts, published at Oxon by Hodder and Stroughton press Ltd in 2007. The author’s informative text explores the following.
Heidegger’s background and the times he lived.
The central ideas of Heidegger’s work in simple terms.
Heidegger’s influence on ecology, art and literature and lastly, the continuing importance of Heidegger to philosophy and contemporary thought. The next work to be reviewed here is titled: A Commentary On Heidegger’s Being And Time, written by Michael Gelven, published by Northern: Illinois-university press, 1989. For the author, Heidegger equiperates Being with Time (Zein und Zeit). For him, existence within time refers to our fundamental way of Being which simultaneously spans and is constituted by the three dimensions of time-past, present and future. The third book under review is titled: The Cambridge Companion To Heidegger, edited by Christian Guignon and published by Cambridge university press, 1996. The central theme of this companion is fundamental ontology. By this Heidegger understands the critical or preliminary step of first studying the human being before one then pursues the investigation of the ‘sein’. It is the preliminary analytic of the Dasien which is the sole focus where the Being-question is posed and tackled.
The fourth book to be reviewed here is authored by Pantaleon Iroegbu titled Metaphysics: The Kpim Of Philosophy, published in Owerri in 1995 by international university press Ltd. The author, insist here that Being is the fundamental bedrock of any metaphysics. For Ireogbu, Being is and non-beings is not. Being is englobing and encompassing. It signifies the totality of reality. He especially devoted chapter 17 of this work to explaining, analyzing and evaluating Heidegger ontological difference. For Heidegger, the question of Being has today been forgotten, the challenge therefore, and that is Heidegger’s metaphysical project is that the question of the meaning of Being must be re-formulated,
The next book under review is titled: The Problem Of Metaphysics, authored by Fredrick Sontag, published in Pennsylvania by chandler publishing company in 1970. According to the author, philosophy, in so far as it is, is a search for first principles is the basic assumption implicit in any question in metaphysics. It teaches us a radical form of questioning. In this sense, “Metaphysics is simply basic of philosophy”. The search for and the questioning of first principles. The author insist here that metaphysics deals with problems which themselves involves even more fundamental problems, and the exasperation involves in this difficult enterprise comes from an impartial desire simply to settle a question without first reformulating and criticizing the question itself. One of these basic metaphysical problem is that of the true meaning of Being. Chapter six (6) of this book centers on the problem of being as Heidegger encountered it when he contrasted being with non-being.
The last book under review here is titled Delimitations, Phenomenology And The End Of Metaphysics, authored by John Salles, published by Indiana university press in 1986. Chapter seven of this book is devoted to the origins of Heidegger’s thought and the questions of Being. The author argues that the historical origins of Heidegger’s thoughts in the restricted sense specified are thus constituted by Husserlian phenomenology and Greek ontology. However, the basics question is “How is it that Being is what remains in thought in the appeal to the things themselves? How is it that a radical-phenomenology must become ontology?”
CHAPTER THREE
HEIDEGGER ON BEING
THE ONTOLOGGICAL ERROR OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
Heidegger became a missionary for being because of the way it was conceived by his predecessors. Being in the world stood for a unitary phenomenon and needed to be seen as whole. His predecessors before him began their reasoning from a platform of false assumption. For example, the ancient Greek philosophers treated being only from a particular aspects, they did not take both aspects into account at the same time i.e. “Being-beings”.
According to Michael Watts, “The primary meaning of being is in the infinitive sense of ‘to be’, but it was also sometimes used to refer to being in the nominal sense of ‘substantial’, or a supreme being. Unfortunately, the earliest philosophers choose the former meaning, Plato and those after him choose the later interpretation of this word ‘supreme being’ or substance. This resulted in a movement away from the thinking on Being towards a search for the meaning of Being in some ultimate principle or divine agent. For Plato, this took the form of what he termed the idea. Aristotle saw substance as the fundamental source of Being. Descartes proclaimed the source of Being was rooted in God and the thinking subject and Heidegger’s teachers Edmund Husserl explained Being in terms of pure consciousness. (Watts, 2007: 10-11).
“The ontological error of western philosophy was an attempt by Heidegger to re-awaken modern man to the significance of the nature of Being, and to provide an account of its nature”. (Unah, 1996:264).
CHAPTER FOUR
EVALUATION
RELEVANCE OF BEING IN HEIDEGGER’S THOUGHT
giant contribution to metaphysical questioning is unquestionable. His profound analysis of Dasein is refreshingly revealing. The relevance of Being in his thought cannot be contested. On Heidegger’s view, the aspersions often cast on traditional metaphysics are well deserved. Traditional Metaphysics has no foundation whatsoever. While it purports to speak about Being, it blurs the ontological difference, confuses the categories and obstructs the free passage to genuine understanding. Rather than speak about Being, Heidegger argues that traditional metaphysics leads to the oblivion of Being. But all of us do have, at least a vague understanding of being because we are fond of using words which suggests that we live within the contest of such understanding (Unah, 1996: 85-86). He accuses philosophers before him of forgetfulness of being, and this has led to the confusion between Being and beings. For Heidegger, since every discipline or science presupposes Metaphysics, it is time for the ontological researchers to provide a foundation for metaphysics. This foundational programme was to proceed to the essential analytic of ‘Dasein’ (by which we mean; the being of man) since it is only dasien of all entities that can raise the question of essential thought. It is only dasein that can raise the question of ultimate reality, and only dasien that can realize the self-reflective consciousness of the human condition. With regards to this laying of the foundation for metaphysics, Heidegger makes the following remarks:
CHAPTER FIVE
EVALUATION
Heidegger started off as a good metaphysician, but later tilted towards existentialism, when he became more concerned with prioritizing being. He highlighted the full authenticity of a human being, despite the Fact that man was drawn into a world that seems to overwhelm him; man should use his authenticity to his leverage. Heidegger’s entire philosophy should be regarded as a master piece. Instead of basking in the light that his predecessors had cast earlier on, he created a new outstanding face that left other philosophers after him captivated.
CONCLUSION:
If you knew this would be the last day of your life how would you spend it? Your answer says a lot about who you are, what you truly care about, the way you really like to be living your life and your conception of being.
This project has been a trip with Heidegger into the ‘beingness of being’. What is being? Heidegger’s giant contribution to the metaphysical questioning is unquestionable. His profound analysis of Dasien is refreshingly revealing. He may have failed in providing an adequate answer to the being – question his contribution to metaphysics cannot be contested. According to some critics, his metaphysics is a non-metaphysical thought of Being. The bulk of this work is more of anthropology than metaphysics. In the questioning, however, he is more of an onthologist than a metaphysician, and from the fruit of his work, he can be judged to be guilty of the same fault he charged against his predecessors; A forgetfulness of Being. He left unanswered his ultimate ontological question “why is there anything and not nothing”?
The search for being is a continuous exercise for philosophy and philosophers. It would be so dogmatic to assert that only one answer is available. Trying to assert an adequate explanation or definition of Being would be as fruitless as a dog trying to catch its tail.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Anah, A. “Belongingness! A Redefinition of Being” in Ukagba (ed), Philosophy and theology of Panthaleon Iroegbu essay : Ibadan: Hope Publication,(2005).
- Aristotle. The Metaphysics, (Trans), Herbert, Lawson Tancred, London. Penguin books, (1980).
- Bambach, C. Heidegger’s Root, Cornell, Cornell University Press (2003).
- Gelven, M. A Commentary On Heidegger’s Being And Time, (Illonis: Nothern Illonis University Press (1989).
- Guignon, C, The Cambridge University Companion To Heidegger, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ltd (1995).
- Harking, S Scientific Cosmology London. Penguin Press, (1978).
- Heidegger, M. Being and Time; Oxford: Blackwell Publishers (1962). An Introduction to Metaphysics; London:
- Yale University Press (1987). Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Indiana: Indiana University Press (1982).