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July 5, 2006
Robert Tulip in Chapter 6 The Place of Ethics in Heidegger's Ontology says that the existential analytic of Dasein brought a new dimension to the western philosophical tradition, in that Heidegger’s emphasis on 'place' and on 'world' sought to re-orient thought to the unitary human level through a paradigmatic critique of the modern Cartesian ontology. He says that:
The ontology of Dasein is built around the observation that human existence is essentially temporal, which means that time is the only horizon within which we can understand the nature of our being and that we are thrown into a world not of our making. Heidegger sought to interpret this horizon by designating the unity of the temporal structure of our existence as'‘care' ...Care is the central theme of Heidegger's whole philosophy, and the term in which Dasein finds its meaning.
Care is an ethical term.
...care is akin to openness, for which the way things and people matter to us is essential.... when things matter to us, we care for them in a specific way, which Heidegger terms 'solicitude'... Concern with food and clothing, and the nursing of the sick body, are forms of solicitude as are considerateness and forbearance. Such concern can occur in an authentic or an inauthentic way, and the difference arises from whether or not we are open to the consequences of our concern. Authentic solicitude retains the dignity and respect proper to care; it seeks to "leap ahead and liberate", by helping "the other to become transparent to himself in his care and to become free for it", while inauthentic solicitude tends to "leap in and dominate", paternalistically making decisions to create a situation of dependency.
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