Re: Falling. Must we fall?

Ethan,

Perhaps you could explain your statement that "authenticity
requires man to become indifferent to his falling." Is this something
that you found in Dreyfus, or could you point to a passage from Being and
Time which you are interpreting this way? I think that this claim is the
root of the difficulty you are having.
In the subject line you ask: must we fall?
As Heidegger says, "Falling reveals an essential ontological
structure of Dasein itself." (B&T p.224)
He also says that "authentic existence is not something which
floats above falling everydayness; existentially, it is only a modified
way in which such everydayness is seized upon."

Two sources that may be helpful to you:

Christopher Fynsk's book Heidegger Thought and Historicity
(particularly Chapter One)
and a brief discussion of falling on page 40 of Reading Heidegger
>from the Start (ed. T. Kisiel) see the essay by Oudemans.

Hope this helps.

Sarah Heidt

On Sat, 25 Nov 1995, Ethan J.M. Leib wrote:

>
> I'm wondering how to resolve a paradox that few scholars consider a
> paradox. If Dasein is necessarily existentially composed of
> understanding/existence, falling, and throwness, then it sems that falling
> is part of his existential makeup. This is difficult only because
> authenticity requires man to become indifferent to his falling. And if he
> is indifferent to his existential makeup, how can we consider him authentic
> Dasein, whose being is necessarily an issue for him. Dreyfus tries to
> distinguish b/w falling and being fallen into das man, but this distinction
> is Dreyfus' own superimposition. If the way we fall is the content of
> authenticity, and the authentic way of falling is to overcome it, then I do
> not see how falling can be a part of our existential makeup. If we are to
> become resolute to our anxiety about falling, then to what extent must we
> fall? Help please......
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------
>
> Ethan Leib (Yale '97).....ethan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say "I
> think," "I am," but quotes some saint or sage.
> -Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
>
>
>
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>


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Falling. Must we fall?, Ethan J.M. Leib
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