Accommodating thrown-being in the world Terrilyn Gail Sweep BSc (Wolverhampton, UK), MA (UQ) A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2016 The School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, UQ Abstract In Accommodating thrown-being in the world, I bring the facticity of an unchosen existence into focus for philosophical investigation. I place this feature of the human condition centrally within a conceptual framework from which I analyse it from an ontological and then a concrete perspective. It is the method I adopt to understand firstly what it means to be such a being and, secondly, to take this understanding into the context of the lived problems that surface on account of our initial unchosen lives. This juxtaposition uses the structure of the underlying ways we have our being to elucidate a possible approach, or ethos, to the seemingly intractable problems of difference, inequalities and contingent ways of being a human. My guiding objective in this thesis is to validate the rationale for proposing this ethos, which is to embrace the fact of our initial unchosen being as a way of nurturing receptivity to the equivalent fact of this unchosen aspect in other lives. The central question is that if I did not choose my life and you did not choose yours, how are we to accommodate this fact within philosophical thought? Is there something purposeful to be said of thrown-being that can illuminate my unchosen start in life, and can this explanatory light be extended to my relationship with others? I am not content to leave the idea of thrown-being in the background of philosophical thought as something ‘given’, instead in this thesis I treat it as a problem that must be approached in a positive way because we must all persist with an unchosen existence. I take the term ‘thrown-being’ from Heidegger’s ontology, which has been seminal for the ideas in this thesis. It has allowed me to look at the human condition from within its ways of being, which is to understand it at the deepest level of how we navigate the fact of our existence. We are thrown-beings into a projective way of being. Therefore, any thinking we do about this being is always after the fact. I can only reflect on the fact of my unchosen initial life. It is this characteristic that justifies the use of ontology as part of my methodology in this thesis. After explaining Heidegger’s existential analytic, I engage with Jean-Luc Nancy’s development of the existential of being-with. This is provided as part of Nancy’s thesis of being singular plural, which is a way of understanding that sense and meaning, as the foci of being, are made through the interplay between subjects who are themselves objects in a never-ending sequence of exchange and repetition. Meaning is made at the limit of sense and can identify a singular experience of being. This idea of thinking at the limit is useful to my argument that thrown-being gives us a meaning of homelessness, which because of our essential ontological nature is at the same time a shared meaning. However, it is only through authentic being that we can actually face this particular i meaning of our facticity. It is also authenticity that affords the opportunity for responsibility. This proto-ethical position is important to validate the necessity of an ethos. My final chapters provide additional justificatory ground for this ethos. They highlight my concern with the ways in which inequalities and luck can be linked back to the situation of our unchosen start in life. I employ the perspectives of a number of philosophers from the analytic, European and feminist traditions. Inequalities arise in the conditions of one’s birth, which give us an unchosen physicality as well as unchosen environmental and social contexts. In the mêlée of competition for limited resources and concomitant recriminations of injustice in a society, it is easy to forget the ‘originary injustice’ of thrown-being. The effect of luck, which to some extent starts at birth, adds to the burden of taking up an unchosen life. A person is therefore owed respect in view of this burden. Another way of understanding what is required of the individual is by looking at risk as the way of describing how humans have projective beings. It can be seen as a way of living creatively into an unknowable future. But if such a thought of creativity can be held authentically, we can also see that it encompasses a fundamental responsibility that falls exclusively to the individual. By remembering that each person is tasked in this way we might be willing to be more open in our relationships to each other. ii Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. iii Publications during candidature None. Publications included in this thesis No publications included. Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None. iv Acknowledgements My most earnest thanks go to my supervisor, Marguerite La Caze, without whom this thesis would not have been possible. Special thanks are also owed to Damian Cox for his help in time of need. To all my friends, too many to list, thank you for your interest and encouragement in the many different ways it was provided. To all my colleagues with whom I have shared this journey, thank you for your helpful advice and comments. Everything you have said was noted and processed as I struggled along. For my family, both near and far, thank you for your patience and understanding. In particular, my husband and children unfailingly supported this thesis journey in every way. So to them: Thank you for being-there during my long absence being-with Heidegger et al. An Australian Postgraduate Award, and the School of Historcal and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland, have also supported my research. v Keywords heidegger; thrown-being; nancy; existence; being-with; inequality; moral luck; risk Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ANZSRC code: 220305, Ethical Theory 10% ANZSRC code: 220310, Phenomenology 60% ANZSRC code: 220319, Social Philosophy 30% Fields of Research (FoR) Classification FoR code: 2203, Philosophy, 100% vi Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................................i Declaration..........................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................................v Keywords............................................................................................................................................vi Introduction 1. A personal perspective...................................................................................................................1 2. The concept and the problem of unchosen being...........................................................................2 3. Methodology..................................................................................................................................7 4. Thesis outline...............................................................................................................................13 Chapter 1 – Being-there: Dasein and world 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................16 2. The question of the meaning of Being.........................................................................................18 3. Dasein’s existence and facticity...................................................................................................21 3.1. The temporality of Dasein’s being as care............................................................................26