The Meaning of Being and Being-in-the-World: Heidegger, the Inherent Relationship Between World and Meaning in Being and Time

Abstract

When reading §32 of Being and Time, we understand that meaning is not a property that can be attributed to Dasein, but constitutes its way of being. Meaning is not an articulated “in-the-world” thing that would come from outside the very being of Dasein, which would make us fall into an improper understanding of meaning. Meaning, understood in a properly ontological way, is not theontic meaning of this or that, but the ontological articulation of the being that we ourselves are asbeing-in-the-world. The strategy to display the depth with which Heidegger presents meaning in Being and Time will be based on the distinction between the categorical meaning and the existential meaning which, much broader than the result of a judgmental act, is articulated in the opening of possibilities of the Dasein as being-in-the-world. In this way, we highlight the inseparability between the notions of meaning and world in Being and Time.