ON THE QUESTION OF BEING AND HUMAN SELFTRANSCENDENCE: A HERMENEUTICOPHENOMENOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ON HEIDEGGER

Abstract

This paper probes the very difficult and unique question of being; the question of our inner possibility, of our understanding of being and the temporal meaning enclosed in this idea; the question of being as being. Using a triple filtered approach the discourse shall; 1. Investigate into the 'being' structure of man. This shall be an exposition of the unique character of man's being as finitely free being in contrast to the Being (reality) of things; the what- and how- being, something, nothing and notness. 2. Discuss the ontological structure of the world as an irreducible constituent of man's way of existing; man's being as being- in - the world. 3. Inquire into the being of self in relation to the being of other selves, and also articulate the repercussion on one's own self of being together with others in the world. This articulations of being thus unveils a philosophy of man that uncovers his man's self-transcendence which not only gives him man, access to other beings but also the chance to show themselves in why, what and how they are. The methodology in use here is hermeneutic phenomenology, first developed by Heidegger's friend and teacher, Edmund Husserl. In doing this however, a distinction shall be made between Husserl's phenomenological reduction and Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology which seeks to describe the transcendental self as the first order of our consciousness by which we are made aware of ourselves as the free and determining factor in our own existence and in our comprehension of the existential world. We conclude that, the transcendental philosophy of Heidegger conceives the term Dasein as a way of life; a distinctive kind of entity that human beings as such are though, not to be understood as the biological human being or the person, and that, the essence of human life is founded in the facticity, or objectivity of Dasein.