Day 1971, questions.

“Every questioning is a seeking. Every seeking takes its direction beforehand from what is sought. Questioning is a knowing search for beings in their thatness and whatness. The knowing search can become an “investigation,” as the revealing determination of what the question aims at. As questioning about … questioning has what it asks about. All asking about … is in some way an inquiring of …. Besides what is asked, what is interrogated also belongs to questioning. What is questioned is to be defined and conceptualized in the investigating, that is, the specifically theoretical, question. As what is really intended, what is to be ascertained lies in what is questioned; here questioning arrives at its goal.”

From Being and time, 2. The Formal Structure of the Question of Being, page 5

Martin Heidegger, 1889-1976.

translated by Joan Stambaugh.

Day 1251, geworfenheit.

Day's pictures, Poetry

The suns gray light

shows the dusts sharp line

through my windows cell

Day 879, Dasein.

Day's pictures, Haiku, Philosophy, Poetry

Wall of thoughts in front

echoing sentences fall

frightened I look up.

Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher (1889-1976), introduced the concept of “geworfenheit” or often translated as thrownness. It’s the idea that we as human beings are thrown into this life in certain circumstances out of our control like family ties and social conventions.

This idea is related with another concept of Heidegger, “dasein”, most common translated as existence. Dasein is the human experience of being (there) and the specific human experience of understanding our mortality and our personality.

Dasein or existence has been used by other philosophers, but Heidegger had a particular meaning which is hard to understand and demands some study of his work. Reading philosophy and learning about our human experience is not a priority for most people but I can recommend it because an unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates).