تاملی بر نسبت زندگی اصیل و معمای هستی در اندیشۀ هیدگر

This article explores the concept of authentic life in the thought of Martin Heidegger, with a particular emphasis on its relation to the enigma of Being across both the early and the later periods of his philosophy. By centering on Heidegger’s fundamental concern—the question of Being—this study offers a more comprehensive interpretation of authentic life: one that simultaneously considers existential structures, historical-cultural dimensions, and the historical-ontological horizon. From this perspective, authentic life in Heidegger is a way of Being in which Dasein is continually oriented toward the meaning and truth of Being, whereas inauthentic life consists in turning away from the enigma of Being by suppressing its questioning and seeking refuge in pre-given meanings.

The present study employs a textual-hermeneutic analysis of Heidegger’s works, focusing primarily on Being and Time (1927) and his later writings. By tracing the continuity and transformation of the notion of authentic life, the study situates this concept within the broader horizon of Heidegger’s engagement with the enigma of Being.

The present study shows that even in Being and Time authentic life is meaningful in a twofold relation with Being and with historical heritage, and that in Heidegger’s later writings — where Being rather than Dasein assumes the central place — the course from ownness/authentic selfhood (Eigentlichkeit) to releasement (Gelassenheit) is traversed. In the horizon of Being and Time, authentic life becomes possible when, on the one hand, one — by listening to the call of conscience and by being-toward-death — frees oneself from the domination of the “they,” consciously chooses one’s possibilities in the light of being-toward-death, and strives to care for one’s Being; and, on the other hand, by attending to one’s historical-cultural heritage, in addition to finding a tie with collective destiny, pursues a more authentic articulation of one’s Being. By emphasizing historically-situated existence, Heidegger does not treat history as a past irretrievably lost, but as something accessible for opening up future possibilities. Heidegger’s return to heritage is not a form of mere traditionalism but an attempt to reopen lost possibilities of Being: the truth of Being always appears in a particular historical horizon, and older horizons that are bound up with Dasein’s past can become openings toward that truth.

Accordingly, in late Being and Time and in the subsequent later works, heritage and the historicity of Dasein play a decisive role in the recovery of authentic life, since authentic life in Heidegger’s path of thinking is intertwined with the fundamental response we give to the enigma of Being. In this framework the relation between Dasein and Being is twofold: on the one hand, authentic Dasein can make possible the retrieval of the openness of Being; on the other hand, Dasein can become aware of Being only within a determinate historical-ontological horizon. Thus the more authentic Dasein is, the deeper and nearer to truth will be its understanding of Being. Yet this understanding is always formed from within a particular world — a world that has shaped Dasein’s past and that outlines the horizon of possibilities before it. In this sense, authentic life depends not only on the call of conscience and on being-toward-death, but also on the historical-ontological horizon into which Dasein has been thrown. Consequently, the recovery of authentic life is not realized solely at the existential level; it requires the historical disclosure of the truth of Being. If, in a given historical formation, Being has fallen into a technological or metaphysical concealment (Verbergung), then the possibilities for understanding and living authentically remain bound within that concealment. Put differently: for Dasein to face death, hear the call of conscience, and return to its authentic self, it must first be situated in a world in which the voice of Being still resonates.

For these reasons, in the later period Heidegger shifts emphasis from ownness/authentic selfhood toward releasement. Here the role of meditative thinking becomes prominent. The most important component of authentic life in Heidegger’s later thought is arriving at a sphere in which thinking is a kind of waiting upon (attunement to) Being. Ultimately, in order to attain authentic life and to pass beyond metaphysics and enframing (Gestell), Heidegger sees releasement — the passage from representational thinking to meditative thinking — as the way forward.

Releasement means readiness to live in the opened sphere of Being: a domain where truth is no longer an object for domination and representation but a mystery before which one must stand, listen, and at once shelter and be sheltered. In this sphere, things are no longer static objects opposed to the modern knowing subject, but beings that dwell within the openness of Being — beings that reveal themselves as they are only within the horizon of a disclosed mystery. Authentic Dasein is that Dasein which dwells at the threshold of the openness of Being, does not regard the world as an object or a resource for consumption, and allows things to be as they are. Such a mode of Being constitutes a higher response to the enigma of Being: the human, in a waiting-upon-Being, lives within its opened expanse.