Heidegger's Controversial Guide to a Life Worth Living

To read Martin Heidegger is to venture into deep and difficult territory. His work is famously dense, his language is notoriously complex, and his magnum opus, Being and Time, was left unfinished. Students of philosophy often approach his name with a sense of dread. So why should we bother with such a demanding thinker? Because the question Heidegger asks is perhaps the most fundamental, and most forgotten, question of our existence: What does it truly mean "to be"?

He believed that all of Western philosophy, since the time of the ancient Greeks, had made a critical error. It had become fascinated with beings—a chair, a tree, a person, a star—but had forgotten to ask about the mystery of Being itself, the very condition that allows anything to exist in the first place. Heidegger's philosophy is not an abstract game; it is a profound and personal call to wake up to the sheer strangeness and wonder of existence itself.

The Special Being Who Questions Being: Dasein

To get to the heart of Being, Heidegger says we must start with the one being for whom Being is a question. That being is us. He coined a special term for this unique human existence: Dasein, which translates literally as "being-there."

Dasein is not just another object in the world. A rock exists, but it has no awareness of its existence. It doesn't worry about what it means to be a rock. We, however, are "thrown" into the world and are immediately confronted with our own existence. We are aware of it, we are concerned about it, and our future is open with possibilities. For Heidegger, the very essence of being human is this state of "care" (Sorge) or "concern" for our own Being. We are the beings who are fundamentally incomplete, always projecting ourselves into the future and defining ourselves through our possibilities.

Escaping the "They": The Trap of Inauthentic Life

Because we are thrown into the world without a clear guide, most of us, most of the time, fall into an "inauthentic" mode of existence. We seek shelter from the anxiety of our freedom by living as "the they" (das Man) live.

"The they" is the anonymous, public world of conformity. It is the world where we do what "one" does, say what "one" says, and think what "one" thinks. We read certain books, watch certain shows, and hold certain opinions because "they" do. This inauthentic life is a state of tranquilized, "timid everyday chores," where we lose our individuality and our true potential. We become just another face in the crowd, avoiding the difficult task of forging our own path. We are living, but we are not authentically existing as ourselves.

So what can possibly shake us from this comfortable slumber?

The Call of Death: The Path to Authenticity

For Heidegger, the one experience that can shatter the illusion of "the they" and call us back to ourselves is the confrontation with our own death.

He offers a startling definition of death: it is the "possibility of the impossibility of any existence at all." Death is not just an event that happens at the end of life. It is the ultimate possibility that colors our entire existence. It is the one thing in our life that is absolutely, uniquely our own. No one can die our death for us. It cannot be outrun, delegated, or experienced by another.

By authentically anticipating our own finitude—by understanding that our time is limited and our existence will one day be impossible—we are liberated from the trivial concerns of "the they." The awareness of death individualizes us. It forces us to ask: Am I living the life that I want to live? Am I seizing my unique possibilities, or am I wasting them by living as "one" lives?

This "being-towards-death" is not about being morbid or depressed. It is the exact opposite. It is what allows for a passionate, authentic life. It is the ultimate motivation to stop deferring our lives and to choose our path with purpose and resolve, creating a meaningful existence in the face of the ultimate nothingness.

A Shadow on the Legacy

It is impossible to discuss Heidegger's profound ideas without acknowledging his dark and troubling biography. He was a member of the Nazi party and, as his "Black Notebooks" later confirmed, held antisemitic views. This has created an enduring and painful question: How can a philosopher who wrote so deeply about authentic existence and responsibility have engaged in such a catastrophic political and moral failure?

There are no easy answers. We cannot ignore the philosophy because of the man, nor can we ignore the man because of the philosophy. His life stands as a stark reminder that even the deepest philosophical insight does not guarantee moral clarity.

Heidegger's work remains a difficult, unsettling, but vital challenge. He asks us to step out of the noise of the everyday and listen to the quiet question of Being, to confront our own mortality, and in doing so, to finally choose to live a life that is truly our own.

References

• Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row.
  This is Heidegger's foundational work. The concept of Dasein as the being for whom Being is a question is introduced in the opening sections. The analysis of inauthentic life in "the they" (das Man) is a central theme of Division One (e.g., §27). His profound analysis of being-towards-death as the key to authenticity is the centerpiece of Division Two, Chapter 1 (§46-53).
• Steiner, G. (1992). Heidegger. Fontana Press.
  This book serves as an exceptionally lucid and concise introduction to Heidegger’s thought for the non-specialist. Steiner skillfully navigates the difficult terminology while also squarely facing the controversial political dimensions of Heidegger's life (pp. 115-132), offering a balanced and critical overview of his monumental and problematic legacy.
• Dreyfus, H. L. (1991). Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I. MIT Press.
  For readers wishing to go deeper, this is a landmark commentary that clarifies the notoriously difficult first half of Being and Time. Dreyfus translates Heidegger’s dense prose into understandable concepts, focusing on our practical, everyday engagement with the world as the key to understanding his philosophy of Being and the nature of Dasein.