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1-Page Summary of Being And Time
Overall Summary
Being and Time is a philosophical text written by 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger. In it, he attempts to answer the fundamental question of the meaning of being. He does so through a systematic exploration of human existence and its structures. First published in 1927, Being and Time had a major impact on subsequent philosophy. It was widely read during the 1960s as an alternative to structuralism or behaviorism (although Heidegger would deny that). The following guide uses the translation from the German by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson, published by Blackwell in 1962
Heidegger believes that the focus of philosophy is wrong. It typically ignores the everyday experiences of people in favor of abstract reasoning. The author thinks that this needs to change and that philosophy should be about what we experience in our ordinary lives, such as work, moods, and social interactions. This will revolutionize both philosophy and our understanding of the world around us. By doing this, Heidegger hopes to help readers achieve authenticity by making them think differently about their own lives.
Being and Time is composed of an introduction, two chapters, and a series of sections. Heidegger explains the different aspects of being human in these sections. The text also has 10 analysis segments that roughly correspond to the chapters in the book. Some topics are covered more than once while others are not at all because they’re either redundant or less relevant to his argument
In the introduction, Heidegger explains that we need to better understand human being and why it’s important. He also discusses his approach for understanding Dasein (human beings) by using a phenomenological method. Chapters 1 and 2 of Division 1 provide more detail on how Dasein differs from other ways of understanding human being, while Chapter 3 deals with what he calls the world of “equipment” which is what most people are engaged in. He distinguishes between ready-to-hand objects and present at hand ones or things.
In the fourth chapter, Heidegger looks at how we’re connected to others. It’s called “Mitsein”. We are lost in a public world of other people and don’t realize it. In Chapter 5, Heidegger talks about moods and how they affect our being-in-the-world. Language is also discussed as an important part of our being but one that we take for granted. The author combines his analyses from Chapters 4 &5 to show us why we get so lost in this public world where everything is taken for granted.
The second division of Being and Time begins by asking how we might find our authentic selves. To do this, Heidegger argues that we must approach the idea of death with a proper mindset. The way to do this is through conscience, or something in us that calls for attention when it’s needed most. This can only be done by understanding what time means to Dasein (human existence). In Chapters 3 and 4, he explains that Dasein is fundamentally time—that is, our being relates to an as-yet unrealized future while escaping from the past. With these ideas reapplied from Part One, Heidegger discusses temporality in relation to history next. He also gives an account of how ordinary conceptions of time are formed historically and culturally.
Introduction, Chapter 1
Being and Time begins with a quote from Plato: “For manifestly you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression ‘being’. We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed”. With this quote, Heidegger lays the grounds not only for what will follow in his Introduction, but for the direction and purpose of this work as a whole. That is, he seeks to reawaken an interest in the question and meaning of “Being,” something that has become so taken for granted that we have forgotten it is an issue. It is provisionally stated as being about how anything is possible at all.
