Philosophy is a subject that is filled with many long books that barely make sense. Martin Heidegger in no way tried to change that stereotype. In fact, one could even say he embraced it. But after slaving away at his masterpiece, “Being and Time,” I will give you what I believe to be the most beneficial points he makes, in plain english.
But first, a quick biography.
Martin Heidegger was born in a rural town in Germany on September 26th, 1889. He was born into the catholic faith but eventually chose to study philosophy over it. He spent a lot of time doing outdoor activities and was especially gifted in skiing and picking mushrooms. He eventually grew up to be a world renowned philosopher with a world renowned mustache.
He is, unfortunately, said to have been into Nazism in the 1930’s. However, he later regarded that terrible decision as the stupidest thing he had ever done. It seems to me that Old Martin did have morals but was tricked, as many Germans were, into the utopia vision the Nazi’s gave.
We shouldn’t let this discredit Heidegger, because it is clear upon reading “Being and Time,” Nazism had no real impact on his ideas that are going to help us.
So, lets get to it. Here is my interpretation of Heidegger.
Life is, being or “Das Sein.” Being is very fragile, and only lasts so long. One of the main reasons Heidegger thinks we are so unhappy is because we are constantly trying to avoid thinking about how fragile our own being really is.
We are terrified of “Das Nichts,” or the nothing. Heidegger preferred this term over just the idea of death. We spend our entire lives trying to avoid the nothing, indulging instead in “Das Gerede,” or endless chatter. This chatter, is our everyday lives. Getting up, going to classes, checking social media, reading the news, gossiping, etc. “Das Gerede” is the sum of all of the trivial matters that only distract us from the fact that death, or the nothing, is always around us.
This way of ignoring the nothing makes us inauthentic. In our efforts to try to ignore the true nature of the world, we lose the true nature of ourselves. We become terrified of our fragile existence, instead of taking advantage of the small time we have.
When was the last time you looked at the sky on a starry night?
When was the last time you spent time with friends without checking your phone?
When was the last time you truly appreciated a butterfly, sitting on a flower?
We should do all of these things more often, and appreciate them while they last. Nothing lasts forever, or even for a long time.
All living things share this fragility. We should feel a sense of unity with not only human beings, but also the bird that wakes us up every morning, or the neighbor’s dog that keeps us up at night.
We have such a limited time to be living on this earth, and hiding that simple truth from ourselves only adds to the anxiety of everyday life. If we could only learn to ignore the endless chatter, and become more understanding of the nothing, our stress would dissipate.
We would realize that, no, that person who subtweeted about us isn’t evil. Just sad, or maybe jealous. We would take more time to look at the ducks as they migrate south. We would close our Instagram apps, and go sit outside and watch time pass. We would stop holding that grudge against a parent. We would put down our phones in favor of having meaningful conversations with those around us.
Although our society makes these things seem taboo to talk about, the fragility of life and the looming “nothingness” don’t have to be scary. These ideas can urge us to pay attention, to be grateful, and to be forgiving.
In short, Heidegger simply says: We must be present and aware of our existence as well as the existence of others.
But perhaps the most effective answer to the title of this post was given by Heidegger himself and needs no interpreting by me:
In a lecture in 1961, when he was asked how we might recover authenticity, Heidegger replied, in quite short fashion, that we should simply aim to spend more time in graveyards.
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If Heidegger interests you, check out this beautiful video from the School of Life youtube page.
Source for the last paragraph:
“Martin Heidegger.” The Book of Life, n.d. 19 Sept. 2015. <http://www.thebookoflife.org/the-great-philosophers-martin-heidegger/>.
I loved the ideas that your post brought up and it genuinely made me think about things I need to appreciate more. One of the most important things that high school taught me is that time goes by very fast. It may not seem like it, but one day in the future we will be graduating college and having to get a job and we will be stunned where all of the time went. I also really enjoyed Heidegger’s idea of the “nothingness” as I feel like people today more than ever have a strong urge to always be doing something. Whether it is talking to someone or scrolling through their twitter feed, people tend to avoid simply observing and enjoying their environment. I really get a strong sense of your passion for philosophy through your posts and I can’t wait to read more!
Even though I do not agree with your first sentence, I loved the rest of your post.
We are constantly about death. Did you know that between around 5th and 13 th century, in Europe, people were giving more importance to the way of death rather than what they have accomplished during their lifetimes. Because they were so sure about death being a gate to their actual life (paradise). Nowadays not everyone is so persuaded about life after death. However we don’t always make the most of our time.
Live everyday is if it was your last, keeping this mentality in mind everyone would definitely agree they wouldn’t want to spend their last hours on twitter but instead appreciating true beauties life. But people tend to forget that we are mortal and spend their times “inefficiently”. Thus spending time in graveyards might be a macabre but intelligent idea to remind us our time is limited.
I truly enjoyed your post #2 and I genuinely can’t wait to read more!
Reading your blog is great, simply because your voice comes through in your humor. I smiled to myself when I read your comment about Heidegger being a “world renowned philosopher with a world renowned moustache.” What’s even better is your ability to take these philosophical ideas and break them down into simple thoughts that I and other readers can relate to right away. This past summer, I went out one night and lay under the stars with my friend to watch a meteor shower. The beauty of the world stunned me that night. It was 2 AM, and I wanted nothing more than to sleep, but I forced myself to get up and appreciate what was right in my backyard. Those are the nights that you realize how fleeting everything is; how we must take advantage of what’s right in front of us, even when we would rather sit back and be lazy. I never connected these thoughts to the idea of “nothingness,” but as I read your post, I understood that completely. The idea of having nothing left truly is terrifying, but perhaps we should embrace it.
-Annabelle