Heidegger on Anxiety and Dasein

Summary

The video discusses Heidegger's philosophical view of anxiety. Heidegger sees anxiety not as a disorder, but a fundamental mood that reveals our existence and freedom. For Heidegger, our existence or 'Dasein' means 'being there' - we exist in relation to the world. Occasionally anxiety disrupts our habitual way of living and we face our 'nothingness' - the fact that we are free beings not determined by anything. Anxiety reveals we were previously 'at home' in the world. It individualizes us by making us realize we are our own freedom and no one else can live our lives. Though anxiety involves responsibility, embracing our nothingness can bring calm and peace.

Takeaways

• 😯 For Heidegger, anxiety discloses our very being - it's through anxiety that we find out who we are
• 😮 Dasein means 'being there' - it shows that existence is always already outside of itself, always situated in the world
• 🤔 Anxiety reveals we relate to our environment through nothingness - we feel uncanny when our habitual way of living is disrupted
• 😑 Anxiety isn't a constant state, but reveals an underlying freedom we have in relation to the world
• 😳 The experience of nothingness in anxiety makes creativity possible by removing our feeling of being at home
• 🙂 Anxiety can evoke wonder and creative longing - it causes us to come into our own
• 😅 Anxiety is different from fear - it has no specific object we try to flee from
• 😉 Freedom and nothingness are interwoven for existentialists like Heidegger
• 🧐 Anxiety individualizes us by making us realize we are our own nothingness and freedom
• ☺️ Resting in anxiety brings a sense of peace from accepting the nothingness that we are

Q & A

What is the fundamental difference between how anxiety is commonly viewed and how Heidegger views it?

Anxiety is commonly seen as a particular state of mind or disorder that some people suffer from. Heidegger sees it as a fundamental mood that discloses our very being and through which we find out who we are.

What does the term 'Dasein' mean and why is it significant to Heidegger's view of existence?

'Dasein' is a German word meaning 'existence' or 'being there'. It's significant because it shows that for Heidegger, existence is always 'being in the world', always situated in an environment.

How does anxiety reveal our fundamental way of relating to the world according to Heidegger?

Anxiety reveals that we relate to the world in the mode of nothingness - it jolts us out of our habitual, everyday way of living and makes us aware of our freedom in relation to the world.

Why does Heidegger say that anxiety brings a disclosure of 'the nothing'?

In moments of anxiety we realize that things like meetings and obligations are not set in stone - we are free to not participate. This realization of our freedom and lack of determination is what Heidegger calls 'the nothing'.

How is the experience of 'uncanniness' related to anxiety?

When things feel strange or uncanny, they become 'unhomely'. This feeling of not being at home in the world anymore is characteristic of anxiety for Heidegger.

What is the difference between fear and anxiety according to Heidegger?

Fear has a specific object that we tend to flee from, while anxiety has no determinate object. We cannot pinpoint what we are anxious about - we are anxious about nothingness itself.

Why does anxiety reveal our freedom for Heidegger?

Because anxiety has no determinate object to flee from, resting in anxiety means facing our nothingness directly. This nothingness is our utter freedom to determine our own course of action.

How does Heidegger link anxiety to creativity?

He says anxiety can evoke wonder and is allied with creative longing. Facing our nothingness allows us to break out of habitual ways of living and come into our own.

How does Heidegger's view of anxiety compare with other existentialist thinkers?

His ideas about nothingness disclosing freedom and anxiety revealing our fundamental being resonate with other existentialists like Kierkegaard. Though he differed, his thinking aligned in many ways.

Why does facing our nothingness bring a sense of calm for Heidegger?

Usually we flee the objects of our fear. But with anxiety, there is no object - only our own freedom. Facing this directly brings acceptance and peace.

Outlines

00:00

😮 Anxiety Discloses Our Being

Paragraph 1 explains Heidegger's perspective that anxiety is a fundamental mood that discloses our existence and being. Anxiety reveals our capacity to distance ourselves and reflect on our situatedness in the world. It is the experience of 'nothingness' that shows we exist in relation to our environment with freedom.

05:04

😳 Experiencing the Dizziness of Freedom

Paragraph 2 provides examples of when we may experience moments of anxiety or 'uncanniness' that reveal our freedom to act differently. Heidegger suggests these moments pave the way to become a self and take up our own freedom, comparing it to the creative longing and cheerfulness of adolescence.

10:06

😨 Anxiety Individualizes Our Nothingness

Paragraph 3 explains how anxiety differs from fear in not having a specific object. Rather, anxiety reveals our 'nothingness' - the fact that we are ultimately free. This brings calmness from accepting our responsibility. Like death, anxiety individualizes us through realizing we are our own freedom.

Keywords

💡Anxiety

In the context of Heidegger's philosophy, anxiety is described as a fundamental mood that reveals our true essence and existence. Unlike the common understanding of anxiety as a negative or pathological state, Heidegger sees it as a condition that makes us aware of our freedom and the inherent nothingness of our being. It disrupts our everyday, unreflective life, prompting a deeper reflection on who we are and our place in the world.

💡Dasein

Dasein is a central concept in Heidegger's philosophy, translating to 'being there' or existence. It underscores the idea that existence is always about being in the world, or being situated in a specific context. Dasein encapsulates the idea that humans are fundamentally connected to their environment and that our understanding of ourselves is inextricably linked to our interactions with the world around us.

💡Being in the world

This phrase emphasizes Heidegger's view that existence is not an isolated or purely internal state but is always about being engaged with the world. It suggests that our understanding of ourselves and our existence is always shaped by our relationships with others and our surroundings. This concept challenges the notion of an individual as an isolated entity, highlighting the interconnectedness of existence.

💡Nothingness

Nothingness, for Heidegger, is not simply the absence of something but a fundamental aspect of our existence. It relates to the idea that our lives are not predetermined and that there is always a gap between our intentions and the world, which gives us the freedom to choose our path. Anxiety reveals this nothingness, making us aware of our freedom and the inherent uncertainty of existence.

💡Freedom

In the context of Heidegger's philosophy, freedom is the ability to step back from our immediate circumstances and make choices about our lives. It is closely linked with the concept of nothingness, as it is the recognition of our capacity for choice and the absence of predetermined paths that defines our freedom. Anxiety makes us acutely aware of this freedom, as it confronts us with the reality of our independence and the responsibility to make meaningful choices.

💡Unheimlichkeit

Translated as 'unhomeliness' or 'uncanniness,' Unheimlichkeit refers to the feeling of not being at home in the world, a key outcome of experiencing anxiety according to Heidegger. This feeling disrupts our sense of belonging and familiarity, making the world seem strange and alien. It is through this disruption that we become aware of our true relationship with the world and our existence as Dasein.

💡Existentialism

While Heidegger himself did not identify as an existentialist, his ideas contribute significantly to existentialist thought. Existentialism focuses on individual freedom, choice, and the subjective understanding of existence. Heidegger's emphasis on anxiety, nothingness, and being-in-the-world aligns with existentialist themes of confronting the inherent uncertainties of life and the importance of personal responsibility in defining one's essence.

💡Creativity

Heidegger posits that the experience of nothingness and anxiety can be a source of creativity. By confronting us with the reality of our freedom and the absence of predetermined paths, anxiety can stimulate creative thinking and new possibilities for action. This idea suggests that existential crises can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and inspire innovative approaches to life.

💡Individualization

Heidegger views anxiety as a process of individualization, where the person becomes acutely aware of their own existence and freedom. This process emphasizes the unique position of each individual in relation to the world, highlighting the personal responsibility for one's choices and actions. Anxiety, in this sense, forces one to confront their own nothingness, leading to a more profound understanding of oneself as an independent entity.

💡Fear vs. Anxiety

Heidegger distinguishes between fear, which has a specific object (such as spiders or heights), and anxiety, which lacks a definite object and is instead a general feeling of unease about one's existence and freedom. This distinction highlights anxiety's deeper existential significance, as it relates not to external threats but to an inner confrontation with the nature of one's being and the realities of freedom and nothingness.

Highlights

Anxiety discloses us in our very being. It's through anxiety that we find out who we are.

Dasein means 'being there', showing that existence is always being in the world, being in an environment.

To exist means to stand outside oneself and reflect on existence, but this ability is rooted in situatedness.

Anxiety discloses a fundamental way of relating to the world - the mode of nothingness.

Anxiety jolts us out of everyday life, facing that we exist in relation to the world as freedoms.

Anxiety makes us realize we were at home in the world to begin with by removing that feeling.

Anxiety causes 'unhomeliness', things feeling uncanny, bizarre, strange.

The experience of nothingness in anxiety is the source of creativity, wonder, longing.

Anxiety emerges as we leave childhood habits but haven't accepted adult status quo.

Heidegger's ideas resonate with other existential thinkers like Kierkegaard.

Anxiety has no object, unlike fear. You can't be anxious 'about' something.

You're anxious about your own nothingness and freedom to act, not external factors.

Anxiety individualizes us by making us realize we are our own nothingness, freedom.

Anxiety brings calm by making us rest in and accept our nothingness.

Our environments shape but don't fully determine us - we have freedom.

Transcripts

We're often encouraged to think about anxiety as a

particular state of mind, or even a disorder from

which some people suffer.

The two readings from Heidegger this week offer

a profoundly different picture of anxiety.

For Heidegger, anxiety is a fundamental mood

that discloses us in our very being.

It's through anxiety that we find out who we are.

Now, why is this the case?

Well, for Heidegger, who we are is what he calls Dasein.

Now you've encountered this word in doing the reading.

And if you haven't read Heidegger before, you're

probably pretty confused about what it means.

Dasein D A S E I N is a German word that means existence.

It's an interesting word,

however, and one that translators usually keep

in German, because it's a combination of two

other German words: da, which means "there," and

Sein, which means being.

So Dasein is this word for existence that literally

means "being there."

This is essential for Heidegger.

He plays a lot with the literal meaning of this

word, because for him, it shows that being is always

being in the world, being in an environment, being

there, being somewhere.

Existence is always already outside of itself.

To exist means to stand outside oneself in the

sense that we have the capacity to distance

ourselves from our own existence and reflect on it.

I am able to ask questions such as, "Who

am I and why am I here?"

But this ability to distance myself is rooted in my

situatedness in the world.

I'm never fully distant or fully separate

from my environment.

I'm always in relation to it.

Now, anxiety discloses a fundamental way of

relating to my environment and to my world.

And this way of relating is the mode of nothingness.

You may have sometimes found yourself going about your

daily life, you know, doing your random activities,

doing your work, talking with friends, et cetera.

And then having a moment of catching yourself,

wondering why am I here?

Or you find yourself suddenly experiencing a familiar

word, appearing unfamiliar.

Or you enter a place you've been to many times before, but

suddenly it seems different.

It seems off.

In these situations, we get jolted out of

our almost robotic, habitual way of living

and we come face to face

with the fact that we exist in relation to that world,

that we exist as freedoms in relation to that world.

This is the disclosure of the nothing, for Heidegger.

So anxiety is that moment of being jolted out of

your everyday way of living and seeing that

things are kind of funny.

Oh, I'm expected to go to this meeting at 4:00 PM.

But I could not go to that meeting.

And it's up to me to go to that meeting and only

me to go to that meeting.

That is anxiety for Heidegger.

Now, anxiety, He notes, is something that it's not

like we're experiencing it all the time.

Right.

It's quite unpleasant to experience in many cases.

And it's nice to go about our lives without a constant

anxiety surrounding us.

Right.

There's a reason why people who experience anxiety

constantly want to find some way to get out of

that, to resolve the state.

And so it's not as if he's saying like let's

be anxious all the time.

He's acknowledging that it only appears in certain

contexts, but he says that the certain contexts in which it

appears actually reveal that anxiety was sort of there in a

quiet, asleep state all along, because we are always free in

relation to our environment.

And we are always in a sense outside of ourselves,

having this unique relation to our world.

Anxiety for Heidegger is a peculiar experience of no

longer feeling at home in the world, but we can only

no longer feel at home in the world if we already did

feel at home in the world.

So part of the beauty in anxiety is that by removing

our state of being at home in the world, we come to

recognize that we were at home in the world to begin with.

In the same way that feeling a pinch in our shoe reveals

to us and makes us appreciate the comfort that we had before

we had the pinch in our shoe.

This state of not feeling at home in the world is the

German word Unheimlichkeit, which literally means

unhomeliness, but is often translated as uncanniness.

When things feel uncanny, bizarre, strange,

they are unhomely.

So you might reflect on an example in your own life of

when you have felt the sort of dizziness of nothingness,

the dizziness of freedom.

Perhaps it came about when you realized that you could

do things differently than you have always done them.

Perhaps you realize that the delimited set of options

that were given to you

are not the only options there are, and that

you could choose to do nothing or to do something

entirely out of left field.

In a sense, the experience of nothingness that when

encounters in anxiety is the source of creativity.

Heidegger says that anxiety can evoke wonder, and

that it is in alliance with creative longing and

with cheerfulness even.

Because that moment of anxiety can cause us to

sort of come into our own for the first time.

For Heidegger, anxiety is the fundamental mood of

nothingness and nothingness paves the way for us to

be able to become a self and to be able to actively

take up our own freedom.

This is for instance, one reason, perhaps,

that a lot of adolescents feel themselves anxious.

Because they're emerging out of the acceptance of habitual

ways of being in childhood, but they're not yet at the

place where they're accepting the status quo as adult.

Those of you who have studied existentialism before may hear

some strong resonances with other existentialist thinkers.

And indeed, even though Heidegger never called

himself an existentialist, he is generally

considered to be one.

Those of you who studied existentialism will also

know that practically nobody who was an existentialist

called themselves an existentialist except

for Sartre and Beauvoir.

But in any case, this theme of nothingness as

disclosing freedom, and of anxiety as triggering that

experience of nothingness, is one that Heidegger takes

from previous existential thinkers, such as Søren

Kierkegaard, the 19th-century Danish philosopher.

One of the elements of theory of anxiety that Heidegger

picks up on in the texts we're reading for today

is the idea that anxiety is different from fear.

Fear has a determinate object.

So I'm afraid of spiders or I'm afraid of heights,

or I'm afraid of vases!

In any case, those determinate objects that fear has are

what characterizes fear.

And we tend to flee things that we are afraid of.

Anxiety has a very different relation to its

object because anxiety doesn't have a determinate

object for Heidegger.

It doesn't actually make sense to say that you're anxious

about something, right.

To say you're anxious about an upcoming essay or about

finding a job after college.

What you are actually anxious about is nothing.

When you think you are anxious about finding a

job after college, you are actually anxious about

your own nothingness.

The fact that you are a freedom.

For Heidegger and for existentialists in general,

freedom and nothingness are very closely interwoven.

You are anxious about the fact that it must be you who

takes on the task of finding the job who gets the job,

who shows up to the job.

And so you're not actually anxious about getting a

job, according to Heidegger, so much as you are anxious

about your own nothingness in relation to the job.

The fact that you could not find any job at all.

The fact that you could not show up to the job

on the first day of work.

The fact that literally nothing is determining

that you will get a job.

You might have a lot of factors going in

your favor, right?

Graduating from an excellent college, having a couple of

jobs and internships under your belt, having good grades.

But none of those is determining that

you'll get a job.

They're just making it more likely there is this profound

gap or nothingness between the factors of yourself in

your past history and your environment that are leading

you towards getting a job,

and the actual job that you may or may not get, and

that gap is nothingness.

It is your freedom.

It's the fact that nobody can live your life for you,

can get the job for you.

One way that Heidegger talks about this in other

parts of Being and Time is that nobody can die

your own death for you.

Even if somebody sacrifices themselves for

you, they will still be dying their own death.

Death individualizes us.

Anxiety individualizes us.

And it individualizes us not by making us into this entire

whole of "Here are all of your characteristics and qualities

and you are defined by those," but it individualizes you by

making you realize that you are your own nothingness.

You are your own freedom.

And although this might sound pretty scary, it

involves quite a lot of responsibility, right?

Heidegger suggests that anxiety brings with it

a certain kind of calm because it means that we

are no longer fleeing.

When we come face to face with something that we're

afraid of, our instinct is often to flee it.

But because anxiety has no determinate object, if we

rest in it, we're actually resting in nothingness.

That, for Heidegger, can bring about a sense of peace

and repose and acceptance of the nothingness that we are.

Of the fact that as much as our environments are

buoying us up and in some cases pressing us down,

they are also not the whole story.

Yes, we are Dasein.

We are being in the world, but we are also in a very

important sense nothing.

We are freedom.