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Frontiers of Philosophy in China

ISSN 1673-3436

ISSN 1673-355X(Online)

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Front. Philos. China    2020, Vol. 15 Issue (3) : 395-408    https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-009-020-0023-5
SPECIAL ISSUE
Heidegger, Communal Being, and Politics
WANG Qingjie()
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, China
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Abstract

There are two critical, but opposite interpretations of Heidegger’s understanding of being as a social ontology. One charges Heidegger with adhering to an anti-social “private irony,” while the other charges him with promoting a “self-canceling” totality. The current essay replies to these two charges with a discussion of Heidegger’s understanding of being as “communal being,” which is implicated both in the early Heidegger’s concept of “being-in-the-world-with-others” and in the later Heidegger’s keyword of Ereignis. It argues that Heidegger’s understanding of being as communal being is neither identical with totalitizing publicness nor the same as voluntaristic egotism. According to Heidegger, both the publicness of das Man and voluntaristic egotism are the real threats to humanity at present. Because of them, we human beings are in danger of being uprooted from the earth upon which we—as communal beings—have already and always dwelled and lived with others from the very beginning of human history.

Keywords social ontology      Martin Heidegger      being-with      communal being      politics     
Issue Date: 28 September 2020
 Cite this article:   
WANG Qingjie. Heidegger, Communal Being, and Politics[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2020, 15(3): 395-408.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/10.3868/s030-009-020-0023-5
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/Y2020/V15/I3/395
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