Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 23:41:17 -0800
Subject: Re: Shock'N'Awe





>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


Niala Brown that's the clearest most elegant explanation i've yet heard of
any of H's deep stuf so i too hope your read of it ain't far off the mark
as it beats all the others for my taste. hope too that when other deep H
concepts appear here at explain from the deepsters that you will translate
those in like wise manner - - -

thanks!!

Kenneth






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