"Das Man" is a concept by Heidegger one of giants of German philosophy. Heidegger always made a difference between the authenticity and the inauthentic experience. One can see how weird a concept like this sounds nowadays when authenticity is in which consumer market fragment you can be classified. But philosophy always shows a different way to look at things. Modern processes, scientific reasoning, mathematical formulations are always based one way or another in a body of knowledge accumulated over centuries specially from the product of philosophical debate. PhD stands after all for Doctor in Philosophy.
Heidegger explores the Being. The coexistence or the relation with others based not on the others but on what others might provide to oneself is the inauthentic coexistence. It is just "being together." The other type of coexistence is based on providing others with the possibility to find themselves and to realize their own being. This second form is the true authentic coexistence.
Das Man is "The They" or "The One". According to Heidegger, it is the expression of an inauthentic existence. It is doing something because "that is what one does" or "what people do." Das Man represents an intangible set of rules, linguistics, social norms, and fads. It is an intangible authority with no particular cause or begining that robs the individual from experiencing the true self. It limits us from experiencing who or what our Being or Life really is.
Heidegger portraits this "Das Man" as a negative source of authenticity. The authentic experience is the one with no trace of "that is what people do or what people think" reasoning. In contrast, this blog will try to represent the positive of "Das Man." The qualities from society and history that we choose to add to our own self in the discovery and experiencing of the "Being."
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