Easy And Fast Explanation of Heidegger’s Concept of Being
One of the most famous Heidegger’ ideas is that being appears and hides at the same time. When someone is confronted with this idea for the first time, what usually happens is that one takes it as some form of poetry or as a playful combination of words. This first impression can unfortunately discourage us from trying to make sense of the deep meaning of this idea.
So in the following lines I will attempt to offer an easy and fast explanation of this interesting insight from Heidegger. This explanation, however, does not try to offer a replacement for the great clarifications provided by the academic literature concerning this topic. With these words, I want to warn the reader that if she is looking for a thorough exposition of this Heideggerian idea, it is a must to turn to the corresponding literature.
That said, the question is then, how will we address the challenging task of explaining in an easy and fast way such an insightful idea?
As it is custom for tasks of this nature, we will make use of a metaphor in order to clarify the Heideggerian idea that being appears through concealment.
Which metaphor will we use for such a task?
Metaphor: Verbal Roots
In Spanish, as in many other languages, there is an interesting phenomenon regarding the roots of the verbs. I am talking about the fact that the roots of the verbs never appear as such in a sentence, unless we are specifically talking about them. So, for instance, the root of the verb correr — run in English — is corr-, and you will never find this verbal root as such functioning as a verb in a sentence. However, every time the verb correr is conjugated in a sentence, the verbal root corr- will appear tied with some suffixes which indicate gender, time, and mood of the conjugated verb. This means that, although the verbal root corr- never manifests itself as such in a sentence — once again, we are setting aside the cases where corr- appears as a techincal term for making reference to the verbal root of the verb correr — it still is somehow manifested every time we conjugate the verb correr. In this regard, it can be said that the verbal root corr- manifests itself but through a concealment. That is, the root corr- will not stand on its own in a sentence, but will be implicitly suggested every time a conjugation of the verb correr appers in a sentence. This amounts to saying that the verbal root corr- is not a verb, and, although the following could be contested, it is also not strictly speaking a word.
Heideggerian Being — Verbal Roots
Ok, so having explained this phenomenon of language that occurs in Spanish, as the reader will certainly have already noticed, it seems evident the points of relationship that one might find between this phenomenon of language and the Heideggerian idea that being manifests itself through concealment. And in the same way that Heidegger states that being, although being present in every entity, is not an entity, we could also assert that verbal roots, like the one of the Spanish verb correr, are invariably present in all of the conjugated verbal forms that stem from it and yet are not verbs. In the same way that being itself, according to Heidegger, is the condition of posssibility of beings in general, verbal roots of the kind already mentioned are the condition of possibility of multiple conjugated verbal forms. Without being, entities cannot manifest themselves in what they are. In a similar fashion, without verbal roots, verbs cannot function as what they are.
This is, my dear readers, an attempt to explain one of the main features that, according to Heidegger, pertain to being. You will judge whether I have succeeded at explaining this idea in an easy and fast way.
