One feature of Dasein according to Heidegger’s Being and Time is that, in contrast to the other two kinds of being, Dasein – the kind of being that people have – stands in a unique relation to time. Both objects of the universe and the equipment of our world (the other two kinds of being – Vorhandensein and Zuhandensein) exist in time, they were in the past and will continue to be in the future, but their being is not concerned with either; their being isn’t directed towards the not-now. People, on the other hand, are quite different. They are, to use Sartre’s rather obtuse expression, “not what they are and what they are not.” That is to say, for us the past and the future are always immanent in the present.
The past is an issue for us because of our insistence upon the unity of the subject. Rocks and hammers are quite happy whether we think them unitary or not, but people/Dasein is convinced of its persistence through time. Bluntly put, we take “I” to stand for something that is the same now as it was when I was a child and that will remain so (at least) until my death. But this self is not stable or unchanging. We grow, experience new things, change our minds, move to new countries, even our very cells are replacing themselves constantly. Nonetheless, the past is for us constitutive of the present. Our being is at once now and simultaneously past; we are not what we are, but what we were.
The case of the future is different, but similarly straight forward. Demonstrated by our willing of things to happen, our orientation towards doing things in the world, our outlook is also always ahead of itself. Except when reflecting on the past or when forcing ourselves to be truly conscious of the present our focus remains primarily not in the now, but in the future. We view our selves as projects moving towards some goal, be it so grand as becoming a world-renowned novelist or making dinner for the evening. From big to small our intentionality towards the world and towards ourselves is in the not-yet, in the will-be.
That this is the case can not be proven in any scientific or logical sense. I can not write out a proposition regarding Dasein’s orientation towards temporality, but it can be disclosed. In the Heideggerian phenomenological tradition, if we pay sufficient attention to the phenomena themselves they will show themselves as they are in themselves. Proof can only come from hearing of similar conclusions reached by other people. Thus, if you can not sympathize with the explanation given above then you will have difficulty following the argument any further. But if this realization strikes you as strange, then that needn’t be cause for concern. Phenomena are not hidden from us, but we are all too often insensitive to their being as they are. We are too caught up in our own habits of the world to pay them sufficient attention. This is the core of the realization one has when walking around one’s neighborhood and paying real attention to the buildings, trees, etc. They have not changed, but we are shocked to see all that is there, missed because of lack of attention. I will leave it there for now. In the next part I want to move from Dasein – our way of being – to music as something that discloses this temporal aspect of being.
