Mormon Metaphysics & Theology

10 Theses on Heidegger
August 10, 2005

The last two weeks Enowning, the Heidegger oriented blog, has been listing 10 theses about Heidegger. It's from Thomas Sheehan's paper "Being, Opened-ness, and Unlimited Technology." They are well worth reading and can help you orient your thinking about Heidegger, in my opinion. Yeah a little bit of familiarity with Heidegger is in order. But as always Enowning is providing a great little service in their blog for amateur philosophers like myself. I'll list the 10 theses along with a link to Enowning's discussion of each.

1. Das Sein = das "ist"

2. For Heidegger die Sache selbst is not Sein but that which makes possible the phenomenological occurrence of Sein.

3. die Sache selbst = die Welt, die Lichtung, das Da, etc.

4. Welt/Lichtung/Da occurs only with and as Da-sein, our apriori opened-ness.

5. Thus, in one formulation die Sache selbst is the apriori (= always already) opened-ness of the open-that-we-are, which makes possible all takings-as and attributions of "is."

6. Heidegger sholarship should abandon the word "Sein" as a marker for die Sache selbst.

7. What brings about Welt/Lichtung/Da is human finitude - the hidden, withdrawn lack that generates the open.

8. What Heidegger calls Seinsvergessenheit is the forgottenness not of Sein but what makes possible Sein and Seinsverständnis.

9. The intrinsically hidden lack/finitude that is responsible for the apriori opened-ness of the open guarantees both the groundlessness and the in-principle unlimitedness of our ability to take-things-as -- for example, in theoretical-scientific knowing.

10. The in-principle unlimitedness of takings-as and occurrences-of-being likewise makes possible unlimited technology.

I should note that many of Sheehan's papers are available at his website. (Which, as with so many professors, hasn't been updated for a while) And those of you interested in Heidegger and are not reading Enowning really ought. I always pick up something interesting there. It's definitely one of my favorite blogs.


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