Heidegger reverses philosophy by grounding ontology in everyday practical Being-in-the-world

Evidence

Heidegger is philosophy’s great reverser. In Being and Time, it is everyday Being rather than the far reaches of cosmology or mathematics that is most ‘ontological’. Practical care and concern are more primordial than reflection. Usefulness comes before contemplation, the ready-to-hand before the present-at-hand, Being-in-the-world and Being-with-others before Being-alone. We do not hover above the great rich tangle of the world, gazing down from on high. We are already in the world and involved in it — we are ‘thrown’ here. And ‘thrownness’ must be our starting point. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 221

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines thrownness, ready-to-hand vs present-at-hand, Being-in-the-world — core Heideggerian concepts in one dense passage.
• XREF: Synthesizes Heidegger for the reader’s orientation project; connects ready-to-hand/present-at-hand to Dreyfus’s interpretation of Heidegger as extending pragmatism. — connects to: Dasein’s own Being makes it the privileged starting point of ontology — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 198; Heidegger accesses Being through ordinary everydayness rather than unusual states — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 212; Practical involvement precedes detached reflection in his ontology (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Practical involvement precedes detached reflection in his ontology #expands (0.88)
• Heidegger defines human reality through inseparable moments of world, being-in, and being #expands (0.85)
• Heidegger accesses Being through ordinary everydayness rather than unusual states #expands (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 212