4. Martin Heidegger (1899-1976)
4.1. Heidegger’s View of the Human Being
Unlike much of modern philosophy, the philosophy of Martin Heidegger did not regard the human being as a self facing the world. For him, the human being is “Dasein.” Dasein refers to a being (Sein), an individual human being, who lives in the world. A being relates to other beings, attends to the environment surrounding itself, and cares for other people. This is a being’s fundamental way of existence, which Heidegger described as “being-in-the-world” (In-der-Welt-sein). Being in the world means that human beings have been cast into the world without being informed as to the origin from which they came or the destination towards which they are going. Such a state Heidegger calls “throwness” (Geworfenheit), or “facticity” (Faktizitat).
Normally, people come to lose their subjectivity (or independence) when they strive, through their daily lives, to adjust themselves to their external circumstances or to other peoples’ opinions. This is the situation of the “they” (Das Man) who has lost the original self, according to Heidegger. 17 Such a “they” spends its daily life indulging in idle talk, distracted by curiosity, and living in peaceful ambiguity. This is called the “falling” of Dasein.
This Dasein, which has been thrown into the world, seemingly without any reason, exists also in anxiety (Angst). If we inquire deeply into the nature of this anxiety, we eventually reach the fundamental anxiety one experiences concerning death. When, however, a person does not simply spend time waiting, in anxiety, for some vague future, but rather positively accepts the fact that he or she, as a human being, is a “being-towards-death” and, with that in mind, lives with a serious determination toward the future, that person can progress toward the original self. In this way, human beings project themselves toward their future; in other words, they put stake in their future. Heidegger calls this “projection” (Entwurf). This nature of the being he calls “existentiality.”
At such a time, based on what do people project themselves? They project hemselves based on the “call of conscience.” The call of conscience is that inner voice that calls people to abandon their fallen selves and go back to their original selves. Heidegger speaks of the call of conscience as follows: “The call undoubtedly does not come from someone else who is with me in the world. The call comes from me and yet from beyond me.” 18
Heidegger grasps the meaning of being in terms of temporality (Zeitlichkeit). When being is seen from the perspective of casting itself, it can be grasped as “ahead-of-itself,” and when seen from the aspect of having already been cast, it can be grasped as “being-already-in”; and when seen from the aspect of tending the environment and caring for others, it can be grasped as “being-alongside.”
Human beings do not proceed toward a solitary self, separate from the world. If these aspects are seen in the light of temporality, they correspond, respectively, to the future, the past, and the present. Human beings proceed toward the future potentiality by listening to the call of conscience, in order to save the self from present falling, while taking on the burdens of the past. This is Heidegger’s view of the human being seen from the viewpoint of temporality.
4.2. A Unification Thought Appraisal of Heidegger’s View of the Human Being
Heidegger asserted that the human being is a being-in-the-world, a “they” who has lost the original self; he also said that the characteristic feature of that situation is anxiety. He did not, however, clarify why human beings have lost their original selves, or what the original self is like. He speaks of projecting oneself toward one’s original self, but if the image of the self to be attained is not clear, there is no way we can verify that we are indeed proceeding toward the original self. Heidegger said that the call of conscience guides human beings to go back to their original selves, but this is not an adequate solution to the problem. Actually, this is little more than a philosophical expression of the common knowledge that people ought to live in obedience to their conscience. In a world that does not recognize God there can be only one of two possible ways of life, namely, living according to one’s instinctive life, as proposed by Nietzsche, or according to one’s conscience, as Heidegger proposed.
From the perspective of Unification Thought, however, it is not sufficient merely to live in accordance with one’s conscience. Instead, people should live in accordance with their “original mind.” Conscience may be oriented toward what each individual person regards as good and, therefore, the standard of conscience and of what is good, will vary according to each individual. Hence, when people live according to their conscience, there is no guarantee that they are indeed moving toward their original selves. Only when people live in accordance with their original mind, which possesses God as its standard, will they indeed be moving toward their original selves.
Heidegger said that human beings can be saved from anxiety when they become seriously determined to accept the future, instead of aimlessly waiting for the future to come to them. But, again, how can we be saved from anxiety when the original image of the self is not clearly defined? Seen from the viewpoint of Unification Thought, the cause of anxiety lies in our separation from God’s love. Therefore, when human beings go back to God, experience the Heart of God, and actually become beings of heart, only then will they be delivered from anxiety and be filled with peace and joy.
Heidegger also argued that the way for human beings to transcend the anxiety of death is for them to accept death positively as part of their destiny. This, however, is not really a true solution to the problem of the anxiety of death. Unification Thought sees the human being as a united being of spirit self and physical self, or a united being of Sungsang and Hyungsang in such a way that the maturation of the spirit self is based on the physical self. When human beings fulfill the purpose for which they were created, during their physical lives on earth, their perfected spirit selves, after the death of their physical selves, will go on to the spirit world, where they will live eternally.
Therefore, a human being is not a “being-towards-death,” but rather a “being-towards-eternal-life.” Therefore, the death of one’s physical self corresponds to the phenomenon of ecdysis as found among insects. The anxiety one has of death originates from the ignorance of the meaning of death not to mention the feeling, either conscious or unconscious, that one has not yet perfected oneself.
Such a task can not generally be accomplished in only one generation; it is accomplished after being passed on from generation to generation. Specifically, in the present generation, we are entrusted with those conditions of indemnity that were not completed by our ancestors. Hence, we attempt to establish those conditions in our own generation, thus bearing responsibility for the future and for our descendents. This is the true meaning, seen from Unification Thought, of the fact that human beings have temporality.