Week 3, Lecture 2

The lecture began with talking about Husserl's belief that 'consciousness is international; meaning is fixed subjectively' and that knowing was a structure where some ideas have more priority than others depending on intention. Therefore, this suggests that Phenomenology and types of literary journalism are looking at the familiar as unfamiliar and vice versa.



Heidegger:
His views tended to be a reconsideration of Descartes and Dualism: 'cartesian reflectiosns'- 'I think therefore, i am' or as Heidegger believed the only thing which could be said is that 'there are ideas'. Heidegger believed that it was the making of choices which was important and this is known as existentialism. This gave us a new way of looking at things, which may not have usually been apparent to us. Heidegger also said how being/existence was 'Dasien' meaning a method of copying; thus meaning an ordinary way of life. For Heidegger it was not what you do, but the way that you do it, that really counted.

Time:
This was the next idea raised in the lecture as Chris discussed how Kant was the first person to notice that there are different types of time, depending on what it is being used for. Einstein said how time is a 'fourth dimension' of the universe which can not be conceptualized by three dimensional beings; as we are a different dimension. He believed that time and its effects were not uniform.
For Heidegger however, time is, 'the structure of being', time is not separate from perception. There is a three fold structure:

1. The Past- represents guilt
2. The Future- represents the unkown/ fear
3. The Present- represents dread

The existentional morality/ psychotherapy aims to reduce felings of guilt about the past and promotes 'indifferecne towards the future. We should forget the past. The scope for freedom in the present moment is enlarged: thus 'Dasien' becomes less inauthentic.- "Existence processed essence". Sartre argues that this dread and fear comes from others around us, "Hell is other people". yet at the same time "we" are other people. Carl Jung points out that 'the collective consciousness" creates a world where we are made to feel guilty about the pat and apprehensive about the future.

Camus:
Camus' text, "The Outsider" refuses to be determined buy other people, he seeks authenticity and tries to live it. He feels no guilt for his actions or the consequences they may have and therefore, his 'Dasien' is not authentic. The text is all in the present tense; no past or future. Merssault's character is described as a non-romantic/ post-romantic existential hero, who feels no guilt for his role in Nazi Germany.

An existential diemma is created buy the Romantic idea that you must 'Be Yourself', as existentialism says that this is impossible as we will always be inauthentic to a certain extent. We also considered the question, "Why are we here now?" Heidegger's response would have been, 'thrown-ness' and that there is no particular reason why we are here, as we have just been thrown into the world out of pure luck.