Right. The individual does not come first. The individual (in Heidegger) finds itself in a world full of meanings that have been passively absorbed by it (to the extent that Dasein, which is essentially dynamic and directed outward to the world, can be passive). Many of these meanings have been passed on by "history." The individual does not produce meaning -- rather, it discloses it in the process of interaction with the world. What is true is that for Heidegger (and he's right, IMO) history is always appropriated by the individual in terms of the individual's understanding of the present and future. History is a value-laden enterprise, to use non-Heideggerian language. To put it in mundane political terms, the way a US conservative interprets US history is different from the way a US liberal or radical or neo-Nazi or whatever will interpret it, because they are looking for different things in the light of their own contemporary political projects.
--- ravi <gadfly at exitleft.org> wrote:
> >
>
> I don't want to speak for Chris, but here's how I
> read his stuff:
> Heidegger is talking about first person experience
> in the context of how
> it has been defined in Cartesian terms. IOW, in the
> context in which
> Chris is talking, Heidegger is addressing the impact
> of phenomena on an
> individual. This is not to be interpreted that
> Heidegger thinks the
> individual comes first or that he (human in gneral)
> is the measure of
> things (so to say, though IIRC Heidegger[ians] have
> a very different
> analysis of Heraklitos). In a way, IMHO, if you buy
> into it, he resolves
> the disparate frameworks of Cartesian idealism (I
> think therefore the
> world and phenomena exist) and realism/rationalism
> (things exist
> independent of me). I am out on a philosophical
> amateur's limb here, but
> I hope I am guilty of no more error than misuse of
> labels.
>
> --ravi
>
> --
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