Husserl’s Defining of Dasein

I have found it quite interesting that Husserl, formerly a theological student, makes references to St. Paul and other New Testament writers discussing, “Being in the world”. St Paul said, “We are in the world, but not of the world”. I contemplate how much of this theological wisdom had an effect and/or influence on Husserl’s philosophical in-depth defining of “Being”.

Dasein, sometimes understood as human life, differs ontologically from all things that are not Dasein in essential respects. Husserl re-awakens the universal question (which began with the Pre-Socratics), what is meant by “Being”. For Heidegger, “Being” is obscure

and un-definable, nevertheless it is an evident concept. It is rather different from how we have understood being in the world with respect to persons and things. He understands “Dasein” phenomenologically and ontologically and gives an analysis of the existentialia and existentialistic meanings of human “Dasein”. There is a complex lexicon of German terminology that he utilizes in order to explain “Dasein” or “Being in the world”. Vorhanden are objects that we focus as objects “present at hand”, there by nature. Heidegger tries to retrieve this understanding of being as we have forgotten their nature of Being in the world. Zuhanden. (close at hand) are utensils made by hand and at our disposal. Vorhanden often is used to refer to all that are not human “Dasein”.

Existentialistic concerns the philosophical investigation into the phenomenological structure of “Dasein” and understanding the existentialia of “Dasein”. Some of the existentialia of Dasein are Befindllichkeit, Verstehen ,Rede, Verfallen and a host of others which define the structure of Dasein. These four above mentioned terms refer to, the thrownness of Dasein into the there (Da) of the world revealed through moods, understanding, language and occupation with the world of its care, respectively.

Dasein is concerned with its own “Being”, its possibilities, for we are the “Being” for whom our own Being” is always an issue. Dasein does not express essence, but rather “Being there”, to which the term existence applies exclusively to it. In the phenomenological reduction, Husserl attempts to overcome the attitude of subjectivity in his analyses.