Being And Time

Heidegger said that to understand the they, and hence Dasein in its initial and most common state, it was necessary to understand understanding. This was to be done via its principal modes: moods and discourse. This is because it is the absence of self-understanding that defines the they. Such a process would indicate two things. First, it would show what, more properly, the nature of they-being is, because by showing what self-understanding is, we could show what it is not. Second, this process would intimate how to escape the they, and how thereby, in our lives, to understand it and avoid inauthenticity.

With Heidegger’s account of discourse and mood, he seems to have accomplished these aims; the means to understanding, and hence escaping, the they have ostensibly been provided. Moods, as seen, can in theory disclose the world via its breakdown. This is especially the case regarding the emotion of angst, which reveals the uncanniness of the they-world. Discourse can help spread this understanding, or even encourage those moods that facilitate self-understanding. Consider in this role, for example, the text of