{"id":28830,"date":"2023-03-31T09:29:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T13:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=28830"},"modified":"2024-08-19T14:30:29","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T18:30:29","slug":"a-heideggerian-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=28830","title":{"rendered":"a Heideggerian meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(This is the third in a series; see also a Hegelian meditation<\/a> and a Husserlian meditation<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a breath: in, out. Then another. It has a certain mood, first a bit anxious, then more relaxed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is going on here–really<\/em> going on? People have disagreed, but they tend to use the same vocabulary even when they espouse incompatible theories. Their keywords include: subject, object, language, world, mind, nature, freedom, and necessity.

Just for example, perhaps some of the material called “air” is filling lungs while brain cells are generating a subjective impression of relaxation and suggesting the words “to breathe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This vocabulary seems to miss or obscure what it is happening here. The experience is not of oxygen; it is of breathing, which is intrinsically an activity with purpose and value. Being there (Dasein<\/em>) always comes in a mood; affect is not merely added on. But the mood can shift, and the activity can change the mood. Unconscious, hurried respiration can become meditative breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dasein<\/em> unfolds over time and is aware that it must end one day. It has not chosen to be but has been thrown into the world–obliged to breathe, to have a mood at each moment, to experience time, and to adopt a language with a history. Yet Dasein<\/em> can choose to become aware of its temporality, its mortality, its concerns, and its attunements to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being-there with a breath affords these insights. Letting it be-there without the usual vocabulary of philosophy and science can show Dasein<\/em> what it authentically has been and is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So: what mood is there with this particular breath? If it is anxiety or boredom, that is real. Accept it, and then change it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: joys and limitations of phenomenology<\/a>; the sociology of the analytic\/continental divide in philosophy<\/a>; on philosophy as a way of life<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This is the third in a series; see also a Hegelian meditation and a Husserlian meditation.) This is a breath: in, out. Then another. It has a certain mood, first a bit anxious, then more relaxed. What is going on here–really going on? People have disagreed, but they tend to use the same vocabulary even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-continental-philosophy","category-philosophy","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28830"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28854,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28830\/revisions\/28854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}