Heidegger has been criticized for his participation in the Nazi party and one could draw a direct connection from his politics to his idea of the herd-instinct philosophy of “falling into the they.” We fall into the “they” to avoid the anxiety of separation. “There is no I, only the one.” Human interaction usually lacks real meaning, consisting of comforting “idle talk.” Anticipating the later Wittgenstein, Heidegger rigorously critiques Cartesian mind-body dualism. He argues that rationalism is a derivative abstraction from emotion. “Being-in-the-world” refers to the notion that ontological existence precedes ontic categories of rationalism. Heidegger also advances his views on the nature of time and “Being-towards-Death.” We are each in the process of Becoming, reaching for an ideal that is never attained; the ultimate goal of all life is death but we supress the awareness of death in order to exist.
Being and Time
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