Care as the Pre-ontological Structure of Dasein

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Martin Heidegger, in "Being and Time", examines the existential structures with which Dasein (being) interacts in order to reveal their unification as a structural whole. The paper points out that the phenomenon of 'care' underlies the structural totality of Dasein's being-in-the-world as the fundamental interpretation of itself, through which it is disclosed as being-ahead-of-itself. Furthermore, the state-of-mind of anxiety discloses Dasein's turning away from itself in its 'fallenness' into the world, only to turn back toward itself to realize the possibility of authentic being, as opposed to the inauthentic being provided by the everyday interpretation of Dasein. The primordial interpretation of Dasein's being as care allows the primary differentiation of possibilities, which are enacted through a care structure that both underlies and inhabits existence, facticity and 'fallenness'. The paper concludes that these existential structures are unified through the care structure to delimit an essential definition of the basic state of that entity to which Being is an issue.

From the Paper:

"The phenomenon of 'care' underlies the structural totality of Dasein's Being-in-the-world as the fundamental interpretation of itself, through which it is disclosed as being-ahead-of-itself. Martin Heidegger, in Being and Time, examines the existential structures that Dasein, as that entity to which its Being is an issue, interacts with to reveal their unification as a structural whole, within which Dasein manifests as a Being-possible. The state-of-mind of anxiety discloses Dasein's turning away from itself in its 'fallenness' into the world, only to turn back toward itself to realize the possibility of authentic Being, as opposed to the inauthentic Being provided by the everyday interpretation of Dasein. The actualization of any possibilities requires that Dasein exist ahead-of-itself in projecting its Being into those possibilities. The primordial interpretation of Dasein's Being as care allows the primary differentiation of possibilities, which are enacted through a care structure that both underlies and inhabits existence, facticity and 'fallenness'. These existential structures are unified through the care structure to delimit an essential definition of the basic state of that entity to which Being is an issue."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1962.

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