Subject: Re: Shock'N'Awe
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 23:25:09 -0500


John wrote,

> what
 >is your rationale for any - and what so ever- 'cause' for
 >anxiety? Is anxiety completely groundless?

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


I can't answer for Anthony, but I think I can paraphrase Heidegger. Here
goes....

A human being ("dasein" more accurately) is being towards death. Death is
not fundamentally something that eventually comes about. It could happen any
moment. It is a standing possibility that defines the human being, because
of all the possibilities open to us, the possibility to not be is the only
one that is ever present and the same between any two conscious beings.

Lost in the idle discourses, pallatives, and interesting things to pay
attention to in the world, we forget the pending nature of our existence. We
pay attention to all the life and stuff around (the "they self" -
inauthentic existence), even go so far as to believe in an afterlife (and
rule out a priori the realization of what it is to be alive). Then anxiety
hits. It says:

I am the one who faces death. My death is mine alone. I die alone.
My life and all I hold dear is fragile, pending, not over yet.
They do not die with me. I die. Another individual out there can die. They
are only .... a veil over the truth.
And I do not merely think these to be true. They are shown to me as true by
the anxiety that envelopes my soul.

In short, fear is of things (ontical) in the world. Anxiety is a way of
being towards death, the possibility to not be that defines living
existence. If you feel scared of something nasty, that's fear. If you're
scared not of anything in particular, but rather of your own essential
frailty and pending continuance, that's ontological anxiety. THAT is the
ground of anxiety.

I hope that helps, and that my interpretation of Heidegger isn't too off.
Best regards



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