Subject: anxiety
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 03:49:24 +0000


John Foster wrote:

>so what is your implied motive for your allegations?
>Certainly as you might likely exclaim 'any entity in the
>word' is justification for a denial that anxiety is
>'present'.
>
>So my question is based on your preliminary assessment, what
>is your rationale for any - and what so ever- 'cause' for
>anxiety? Is anxiety completely groundless?

Asking for a cause of anxiety is like asking for a cause of Dasein, since 
anxiety is a basic state of mind belonging to being-in-the-world (Dasein). 
Anxiety is groundless in EXACTLY the same way that Dasein is thing-less 
(groundless) at its "core" - i.e., pure potentiality for being. That is what 
Heidegger means when he says that Dasein's essence is existence. The only 
way you can mitigate anxiety is by eliminating Dasein's thrown pure 
potentiality for being, which would be to eliminate Dasein itself.

>According to your stated belief, there is no 'causality'
>what so ever for anxiety in this world. Is this correct?

Just as there is no "causality" whatsoever for being-in-the-world (i.e., 
Dasein) as such. Asking for one is like asking for the other. By asking for 
a cause, you are thinking of the usual ontic meaning of anxiety, which is 
indeed CAUSED.

>How do you explain Heidegger when he says that "anxiety is
>fear"?

Did you even read my last reply to you, John? This is what I said:

First of all, "fear is anxiety, fallen into the world" - that is PRECISELY 
the difference between fear and anxiety:

"In falling, Dasein turns away from ITSELF. That in the face of which it 
thus shrinks back must, in any case, be an entity with the character of 
threatening; YET THIS ENTITY HAS THE SAME KIND OF BEING AS THE ONE THAT 
SHRINKS BACK; IT IS DASEIN ITSELF. That in the face of which it thus shrinks 
back CANNOT BE TAKEN AS SOMETHING FEARSOME, for anything fearsome IS ALWAYS 
ENCOUNTERED AS AN ENTITY-WITHIN-THE-WORLD. The only threatening which can be 
fearsome and whcih gets discovered in fear always comes from entities 
within-the-world. Thus the turning-away of falling is NOT a fleeing that is 
founded upon a fear of entities within-the-world.... The turning away of 
falling is grounded rather in ANXIETY, which in turn is what first makes 
fear possible." (SuZ 185-186)

So the difference between fear and anxiety is precisely that fear shrinks 
back from some entity within-the-world, whereas the turning-away of falling 
is NOT from some entity-within-the-world, but rather from the very "same 
kind of being as the one that shrinks back: IT IS DASEIN ITSELF." Since 
Dasein is not an entity within the world, the turning-away from itself that 
is falling cannot be fear, since fear is only of entities within-the-world. 
That is what he means when he says that fear is anxiety fallen into the 
world - anxiety, like fear, is a turning-away or shrinking back, but unlike 
fear, it is not about an entity in the world at all.

Anthony Crifasi

_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*.  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus



     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---