Changes

His work has four main points, to be covered very briefly.

His work has four main points, to be covered very briefly.

=== One: we've forgotten to notice that we're alive ===

=== One: we have forgotten to notice that we're alive ===

Heidegger asserts that one is not properly in touch with the 'Mystery of Being', the mystery of what Heidegger would term ''das Sein'', or Being with a capital B. Much of his time is devoted to trying to wake us up to the strangeness of living on a [[Earth|tiny planet]] in an [[Fermi's Paradox|uninhabited and silent universe]].<ref name=book/>

Heidegger asserts that one is not properly in touch with the 'Mystery of Being', the mystery of what Heidegger would term ''das Sein'', or Being with a capital B. Much of his time is devoted to trying to wake us up to the strangeness of living on a [[Earth|tiny planet]] in an [[Fermi's Paradox|uninhabited and silent universe]].<ref name=book/>

For Heidegger, the modern world is an infernal machine dedicated to distracting us from the basic wondrous nature of Being. It constantly pulls towards practical tasks, it overwhelms us with information, it kills silence, it doesn’t want to leave us alone – partly because realizing the mystery of Being has its frightening dimensions. Doing so, we may be seized by fear (‘Angst’) as we become conscious that everything that had seemed rooted, necessary and oh-so-important may be contingent, senseless and without true purpose. We may ask why we have this job rather than that one, are in a relationship with one person rather than another, are alive when we might so easily be dead… Much of daily life is designed to keep these odd, unnerving but crucial questions at bay. What we’re really running away from is a confrontation with – and even non-German speakers might respond to the sonorous depth of this key Heideggerian term – ‘das Nichts’ (The Nothing), which lies on the other side of Being. The Nothing is everywhere, it stalks us, it will swallow us up eventually, but – Heidegger insists – a life is only well lived when one has taken Nothingness and the brief nature of Being on board – as we might do when, for example, a gentle evening light gives way to darkness at the end of a warm summer’s day in the foothills of the Bavarian alps.<ref name=book/>

For Heidegger, the modern world is an infernal machine dedicated to distracting us from the basic wondrous nature of Being. It constantly pulls towards practical tasks, it overwhelms us with information, it kills silence, it doesn’t want to leave us alone – partly because realizing the mystery of Being has its frightening dimensions. Doing so, we may be seized by fear (‘Angst’) as we become conscious that everything that had seemed rooted, necessary and oh-so-important may be contingent, senseless and without true purpose. We may ask why we have this job rather than that one, are in a relationship with one person rather than another, are alive when we might so easily be dead… Much of daily life is designed to keep these odd, unnerving but crucial questions at bay. What we’re really running away from is a confrontation with – and even non-German speakers might respond to the sonorous depth of this key Heideggerian term – ‘das Nichts’ (The Nothing), which lies on the other side of Being. The Nothing is everywhere, it stalks us, it will swallow us up eventually, but – Heidegger insists – a life is only well lived when one has taken Nothingness and the brief nature of Being on board – as we might do when, for example, a gentle evening light gives way to darkness at the end of a warm summer’s day in the foothills of the Bavarian alps.<ref name=book/>

=== Two: we've forgotten that all being is connected ===

=== Two: we have forgotten that all being is connected ===

In essence, Heidegger says that all being is connected by the fact that everything is existing. We are 'connected' with the clouds in the sky and the rocks five meters away because we all are in the state of existing.

In essence, Heidegger says that all being is connected by the fact that everything is existing. We are 'connected' with the clouds in the sky and the rocks five meters away because we all are in the state of existing.