Dasein demonstrates care (Sorge) through “concern” (Besorgen)91 and “solicitude” (Fürsorge).92 Heidegger makes an important distinction between concern for things that are present-at-hand (Vorhanden) and solicitude for Others (Anderen). Things occurring within the world are objectively present-at-hand in a manner unlike the being-in and being-with-one-another of Dasein. Solicitude, as a state of Dasein’s being, is authentic care for the Dasein of others as encountered through being-with: “Dasein-with characterizes the Dasein of Others to the extent that it is freed by its world for a Being-with. Only so far as one’s own Dasein has the essential structure of Being-with, is it Dasein-with as encounterable for Others.”93 Dasein as Dasein-with comports itself toward other Dasein through the care of solicitude (Fürsorge) as authentic being-with-one-another being-in-the-world.
Dasein as being-in is a clearing (Lichtung) through which Being presences: “To say that it [Dasein] is ‘illuminated’ means that it is cleared in itself as being-in-the-world, not by another being, but in such a way that it is itself the clearing.”94 Here Heidegger is developing an understanding of Dasein that continues throughout his later philosophy—an understanding that interprets Dasein through disclosedness, possibility, world, and care.
Through disclosedness, the being that we call Da-sein is in the possibility of being its there. It is there for itself, together with its world, initially and for the most part in such a way that it has disclosed its potentiality-of-being in terms of the “world” taken care of. The potentiality-of-being as which Da-sein exists has always already given itself over to definite possibilities.95
Dasein exists authentically in an attunement to the possibilities of this potentiality-of-being—an attunement that is disclosed in the world as care. This attunement is through authentic seeing (as beholding the wonder of Being) and authentic listening (as a coming-to-understanding of the call of conscience).
Authentic seeing, for Heidegger, is a type of beholding (Anschauung) through which Dasein beholds the unconcealing and unhiddenness of Being: “Being is that which shows itself in the pure perception which belongs to beholding, and only by such seeing does Being get discovered. Primordial and genuine truth lies in pure beholding.”96 Here Heidegger is contrasting everyday seeing (the everyday visual perception of phenomena that arises through Dasein’s natural curiosity) to seeing as beholding, the “contemplation that wonders at being, thaumazein.”97
In a similar fashion, Heidegger contrasts everyday and authentic listening. Dasein is summoned to its own disclosedness through the call of conscience: “The call of conscience has the character of summoning Dasein to its ownmost potentiality-of-being-a-self.”98 The summons calls Dasein forth from inauthenticity—from ordinary everyday (existentiell, ontic) existence—to the authenticity of ontological existential transcendence. This ontological dimension lies forgotten in the everydayness of Dasein. As a finite being, Dasein is characterized by “thrown-ness” (Geworfenheit): “As thrown, Da-sein has been thrown into existence. It exists as a being that has to be as it is and can be.”99 “Thrown-ness” describes the ontological situation of Dasein as “being delivered over to the there”100 and is characterized by “fallen-ness” (Verfallenheit) into inauthenticity. “Fallen-ness” is Heidegger’s term for Dasein’s absorption into the everydayness of existence: “As an authentic potentiality for being a self, Da-sein has initially always already fallen away from itself and fallen prey to the ‘world.’”101 Conscience summons Dasein to authenticity; authentic listening hears the summoning call of conscience.
Authentic existence, for Heidegger, is not something “which floats above falling everydayness; existentially, it is only a modified way in which such everydayness is seized upon.”102 Authentic existence is a matter of comportment through which Dasein recollects its own existential, ontological transcendence toward Being. Dasein, hearing the call, chooses its own possibilities as Dasein: “Understanding the call, Da-sein listens to its ownmost possibility of existence. It has chosen itself.”103 Dasein chooses its own possibilities as Dasein through resolve (Entschlossenheit): “Resolute, Da-sein is revealed to itself in its actual factical potentiality-of-being in such a way that it itself is this revealing and being revealed.”104
The resolve of Dasein unfolds in time and is expressed through discourse. Accepting itself as finite transcendence, Dasein exists in the in-between of birth and death: “Temporalizing itself with regard to its being as temporality, Da-sein is essentially ‘in a world’ on the basis of the ecstatic and horizontal constitution of that temporality.”105 Dasein’s disclosedness is expressed in the temporal present by discourse: “The complete disclosedness of the There constituted by understanding, attunement, and falling prey is articulated by discourse.”106 The articulation of Dasein’s disclosedness is made present as discourse through language; as Heidegger suggests, “this phenomenon has its roots in the existential constitution of the disclosedness of Dasein.”107 Here again, Heidegger is establishing the interconnections between discourse, language, and λόγος (logos) in his hermeneutics of Dasein’s disclosedness.
Through resolve, Dasein opens itself to be summoned into truth (alētheia). In truth, Dasein discovers its own being as transcendence toward Being: “The being-true of the logos as apophansis is alētheuein in the manner of apophainesthai: to let beings be seen in their unconcealment (discoveredness), taking them out of their concealment.”108 Heidegger is grounding his ontological-existential analysis of the disclosedness of Dasein in his understanding of phenomenology: “The ‘being true’ of logos as alētheuein means: to take beings that are being talked about in legein as apophainesthai out of their concealment; to let them be seen as something unconcealed (alēthes); to discover them.”109 The themes of ἀλήθεια (truth as ἀ-λήθεια, unconcealment), Seinlassen (letting Being be), and entdecken (discovering, uncovering) are foundational to Heidegger’s understanding of the relation between Dasein (as There-being) and Being (Sein): “Wahrsein als entdeckend-sein ist eine