Heidegger and Dasein's 'Bodily Nature': What is the Hidden Problematic?

In Being and Time, Heidegger explicitly defers any consideration of ourselves (Dasein) as embodied. I try to account for Heidegger's reluctance to talk about 'the body' in connection with his explication of Dasein, by arguing that doing so would be at odds with the kind of investigati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of philosophical studies : IJPS 2000, Vol.8 (2), p.209-230
Main Author: Cerbone, David R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Heidegger Body Embodiment Interpretation Organism
Human body
Martin Heidegger
Mind and body. Personal identity
Phenomenology
Philosophical thought
Philosophy
Self
Temporal dimension
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Summary:In Being and Time, Heidegger explicitly defers any consideration of ourselves (Dasein) as embodied. I try to account for Heidegger's reluctance to talk about 'the body' in connection with his explication of Dasein, by arguing that doing so would be at odds with the kind of investigation his 'phenomenology of everydayness' is meant to be. That Heidegger omits discussion of the body in Being and Time might lead one to think of the human body in terms of the other categories Heidegger deploys: readiness-to-hand and presence-at-hand (Being and Time) and biological organisms (Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics). I argue that any such identification ought to be resisted, as these categories serve only to deprive our bodies of their specifically human dimension. Indeed, by surveying the failure of these categories as proper to the human body, we gain further insight into Heidegger's initial deferral: only given the existential analytic can one begin to offer a proper account of ourselves in bodily terms.
ISSN:0967-2559
1466-4542
DOI:10.1080/09672550050084018