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Being and Time

of being the "there"; and these are equiprimordial. If these are to be analysed, some phenomenal confirmation is necessary; in both cases this will be attained by Interpreting some concrete mode which is important for the subsequent problematic. State-of-mind and understanding are characterized equiprimordially by discourse.

Under A (the existential Constitutuon of the "there") we shall accordingly treat: Being-there as state-of-mind (Section 29); fear as a mode of state-of-mind (Section 30); Being-there as understanding (Section 31); understanding and interpretation (Section 32); assertion as a derivative mode of interpretation (Section 33); Being-there, discourse, and language (Section 34).

The analysis of the characteristics of the Being of Being-there is an existential one. This means that the characteristics are not properties of something present-at-hand, but essentially existential ways to be. We must therefore set forth their kind of Being in everydayness.

Under B (the everyday Being of the "there", and the falling of Dasein) we shall analyse idle talk (Section 35), curiosity (Section 36), and ambiguity (Section 37) as existential modes of the everyday Being of the "there"; we shall analyse them as corresponding respectively to the constitutive phenomenon of discourse, the sight which lies in understanding, and [134] the interpretation (or explaining [Deutung]) which belongs to understanding. In these phenomenal modes a basic kind of Being of the "there" will become visible-a kind of Being which we Interpret as falling; and this 'falling' shows a movement [Bewegtheit] which is existentially its own.1


A. The Existential Constitution of the " There"


29. Being there as State-of-mind

What we indicate ontologically by the term "state-of-mind"2 is ontically the most familiar and everyday sort of thing; our mood, our Being-attuned.3 Prior to all psychology of moods, a field which in any case still


1 While we shall ordinarily reserve the word 'falling' for 'Verfallen' (see our note 2, p. 42, H. 21 above), in this sentence it represents first 'Verfallen' and then 'Fallen', the usual German word for 'falling'. 'Fallen' and 'Verfallen' are by no means strictly synonymous; the latter generally has the further connotation of 'decay' or 'deterioration', though Heidegger will take pains to point out that in his own usage it 'does not express any negative evaluation'. See Section 38 below.

2 'Befindlichkeit'. More literally: 'the state in which one may be found'. (The common German expression 'Wie befinden Sie sich?' means simply 'How are you?' or 'How are you feeling?') Our translation, 'state-of-mind', comes fairly close to what is meant; but it should be made clear that the 'of-mind' belongs to English idiom, has no literal counterpart in the structure of the German word, and fails to bring out the important connotation of finding oneself.

3 '... die Stimmung, das Gestimmtsein.' The noun 'Stimmung' originally means the tuning of a musical instrument, but it has taken on several other meanings and is the usual word for one's mood or humour. We shall usually translate it as 'mood', and we shall generally translate both 'Gestimmtsein' and 'Gestimmtheit' as 'having a mood', though sometimes, as in the present sentence, we prefer to call attention to the root metaphor of 'Gestimmtsein' by writing 'Being-attuned', etc.


Being and Time (M&R) by Martin Heidegger