In Being and Time, Heidegger attempts at solving the problem of other minds through his analysis of Dasein’s “being-in-the-world”. For Heidegger, Dasein’s everydayness shows that Dasein’s being is essentially “being-with” others.
According to Heidegger, Dasein’s world is a world shared by others, a world in which the other is always implicated, announced, and encountered. This means that in Dasein’s immersion in its world, Dasein always encounters other minds. (The article, What is ”Dasein”?, explains what Heidegger means by Dasein)
The Everydayness of Dasein
In Being and Time, Heidegger begins his analysis of Dasein’s “being-in-the-world” from out of Dasein’s absorption in the world and says that the other is already implicated and always encountered in the environment surrounding Dasein.
“The “Who”… in our ‘description’ of that environment which is closest to us – the work-world of the craftsman, for example, – the outcome was that along with the equipment to be found when one is at work, those Others for whom the ‘work’ is destined are ‘encountered too’”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
This means that the world, in which Dasein is immersed, constantly refers to the other; the environment surrounding Dasein makes clear that there are other minds already existing and always encountered.
The objects that Dasein encounters, uses, or needs in the surrounding environment refer to the existence of other minds. Such objects are usually manufactured objects such as shirts, chairs, forks, and tables. In other words, in Dasein’s world, Dasein is less likely to encounter natural or unmanufactured things such as oaks, but more likely to encounter manufactured objects such as chairs and tables.
Heidegger says that encountering manufactured objects is the same as encountering other minds, for manufacturing means that the natural has undergone a transformation that only Dasein can undertake, since any manufacturing is a distancing from the natural state of things.
That is, in encountering the manufactured objects, the other minds that carry out this manufacturing are also encountered.
“Similarly, when material is put to use, we encounter its producer or ‘supplier’ as one who ‘serves’ well or badly. When, for example, we walk along the edge of a field but ‘outside it’, the field shows itself as belonging to such-and-such a person, and decently kept up by him; the book we have used was bought at So- and so’s shop and given by such-and-such a person”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
Everything that we come face to face with in the world implies and refers to the others.
“The boat anchored at the shore is assigned in its Being-in-itself to an acquaintance who undertakes voyages with it; but even if it is a ‘boat which is strange to us’, it still is indicative of Others. The Others who are thus ‘encountered’ in a ready-to-hand, environmental context of equipment, are not somehow added on in thought to some Thing which is proximally just present-at- hand; such ‘Things’ are encountered from out of the world in which they are ready-to-hand for Others—a world which is always mine too in advance”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
Dasein’s Being as Being-With
Dasein encounters the other in its coming face to face with the manufactured objects that the other transforms and takes care of. That is, Dasein, as an entity “within-the- world”, always encounters other minds in its encountering of, and in its differing from, what is “ready-to-hand” and what is “present-at-hand”.
“If one should want to identify the world in general with entities within-the-world, one should have to say that Dasein too is ‘world’… The world of Dasein is a with-world [Mitwelt]. Being-in is Being-with Others. Their Being-in-themselves within-the-world is Dasein-with [Mit-dasein]”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
This means that the existence of others can be proved by not only fixing our gazes on the entities that Dasein usually encounters whilst being practically immersed in the world, but by also fixing our gazes on Dasein itself.
Dasein is an entity whose existence always refers to, implies, and implicates the existence of other minds. According to Heidegger, “Dasein ‘is’ essentially for the sake of Others”.
In its being immersed and absorbed in its world, Dasein’s roles are environment are inextricably interwoven with the roles and environments of others, other minds. This interweaving signifies the existence of other minds that share Dasein’s world, and pursue Dasein’s practical goals.
For instance, when scholars write books, they tend to write such books for the sake of being scholars and professors, their main objective is improving their being as being scholars and professors. But due to the inextricable interweaving of Dasein’s practical roles, such books are usually read by students who want to improve their being as being students. That is, “since the self-understanding of being a teacher is interwoven with the self-understanding of being a student, to act for the sake of being who I am is to act for the sake of others being who they are as well”.
Thus, for Heidegger, the ordinariness of Dasein’s “being-in-the-world” confirms the existence of other minds. Everything in Dasein’s world refers to the other, even Dasein itself is Dasein as long as its being is “being-with” others.
For Heidegger, Dasein is always in a world, Dasein cannot be world-less. This relation means that neither Dasein nor the world can be analyzed in isolation, for both constantly refer to each other, and this reference itself cannot be understood without implying the existence of others that inhabit the same world. (The article, ”What does Heidegger mean by ”World”?, explains what Heidegger means by world?
Even if Dasein is completely alone, a hermit or a recluse, Dasein’s being is and remains “being-with-others”:
“Being-with is an existential characteristic of Dasein even when factically no Other is present-at-hand or perceived. Even Dasein’s Being-alone is Being-with in the world…Being-alone is a deficient mode of Being-with”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
And even if Dasein is authentic by “Being-one’s-Self”, Dasein’s being is and remains “being-with-others”:
“Resoluteness, as authentic Being-one’s-Self, does not detach Dasein from its world, nor does it isolate it so that it becomes a free-floating “I”. And how should it, when resoluteness as authentic disclosedness, is authentically nothing else than Being-in-the-world? Resoluteness beings the Self right into its current concernful Being-alongside what is ready-to-hand, and pushes it into solicitous Being with Others”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
For Heidegger, Dasein’s “being-in-the-world” is always “being-with” others. “Being-with is an existential characteristic of Dasein even when factically no Other is present-at- hand or perceived. Even Dasein’s Being-alone is Being-with in the world”.
Experiencing loneliness or authentically “Being-one’s-Self” does not alter Dasein’s being. The other exists and is always encountered even if the other is not physically present, and Dasein’s being is “being-with” others even if the other is not physically present. That is, Dasein’s world constantly refers to others, for instance, the “they” as that into which what forms the everydayness of Dasein is brought:
“We take pleasure and enjoy ourselves as they [man] take pleasure; we read, see, and judge about literature and art as they see and judge; likewise we shrink back from the ‘great mass’ as they shrink back; we find ‘shocking’ what they find shocking. The “they”, which is nothing definite, and which all are, though not as the sum, prescribes the kind of Being of everydayness”
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
For more articles on Heidegger’s philosophy, visit this webpage.