Essay On Heidegger On Totality

When defining nothing, Heidegger said that nothing is “the negation of the totality of beings.” So if the nothing is the negation of the totality of beings, then we must be able to know and experience the totality of beings. But Heidegger claims that it is impossible for man to experience the totality of being at once. In saying so, he contradicts himself.

He argues that with the help of moods the totality of beings makes itself known to man. Everyone have moods and these give colour to our experience of the world in various modes. For example when I am happy, I am in my totality, happy and so the world is revealed to me in that way. This in a way defines my experience of the world for that moment or time. The world and the beings with which

After being mislead, man feel guilty. This guilt is felt after man instead of enduring in the experience of angst with the hope that he/she will discover the pure Dasein, man withdraws from that feeling that anxiety brings.

On the other hand, if man is open to the experience of angst, Dasein open itself to what Heidegger says the ‘Situation’, or in other words the experience of ‘Being-there’. This ‘Situation’ brings in man peace and helps man to have authentic relationships with others.

The point here is that the nothing makes itself known through this experience of angst. Heidegger does not have in mind ‘the nothing’ as an object when he says that the nothingis revealed to us. When man experiences the true anxiety, his/her cares and feelings (beings) are not annihilated or negated but are nihilated. By the term ‘nihilation’ Heidegger wants to claim that when experiencing angst cares and feelings (beings) of man are affected by the nothing, they are nihilated by the nothing. He said so to show that the nothing is prior to negation and makes possible the same negation.

The point here is that Martin Heidegger sees “questioning the nothing by means of anxiety to be metaphysical.” He says it