In Being and Time, Heidegger says that we are thrown into the world and starts his analysis of Dasein from out of its thrownness into the world. In this short article, what Heidegger means by Dasein’s thrownness is briefly introduced and explained.
The meaning of “Dasein’s thrownness”
The word ‘thrown’ means to be put roughly and abruptly in a place, or to be sent suddenly into a particular state or condition. Heidegger’s notion of the thrownness of Dasein into the world must start from this brief definition.
We find ourselves, and are always found by others, already sent into and dwelling in a place and a condition from which escaping is impossible. This abrupt sending or rough putting means that we cannot choose that into which we were sent or that in which we were put.
That into which we are thrown, without choosing, is the place of our birth, the moment of our birth, our race, religion, history, and culture. That is, that into which we are thrown is our world.
We are also thrown into the impossibility of knowing why we are thrown into this world, this race, religion, history, or culture. Thrownness is thus multiple, for it is not only a thrownness into the world, but also a thrownness into non-knowing and the impossibility of knowing.
Thrownness also means that we did not choose that into which we were sent, yet it forms, shapes, and influences our past, present, and future. That which we did not choose affects our possibilities and impossibilities.
Heidegger calls this involuntary sending, or putting, “thrownness”, and calls the burden that we must carry because of this “thrownness” “facticity”.
“Facticity”
This means that although we find ourselves already thrown into that which we did not choose, we are always faced with the responsibility and possibility of deciding our own path in the midst of this involuntary sending. That is, it is in this non-choosing that a real choosing might occur.
“thrownness” and “facticity” mean that “thrownness” is not a completed event, an event that might be completed or finished, and then one can start anew; they mean that Dasein was, is, and will always be thrown into that which cannot be chosen.
Dasein’s thrownness will never end, for thrownness is also a thrownness into a present originating from a certain past, into a moment before which infinite events already took place. This means that one cannot escape into that which precedes this thrownness into one’s present in order to disrupt or change this thrownness into the world.
Heidegger calls this impossibility of escaping “thrownness” “always already”. “Always already” means that we are always and already thrown into that which we did not choose, that which we cannot choose. We are already in the world; we are always in the world.
Our “thrownness” determines, decides, and controls our possibilities and that which is available to us, or that from which we can choose. The past, which I neither created nor chose, whose present I am thrown into determines what is available to me in the future. This determining limits and controls my future possibilities.
This means that everything that one creates, chooses, makes possible, or invents, belongs to, and arises only because of, one’s thrownness into the world. The totality of that which I achieve is itself thrown, that is, it is a result of my thrownness into the world.
“Thrownness” says that Dasein cannot reach a point where creating or inventing itself anew is a possibility. That is, Dasein must always think toward a future from out of its “thrownness”, and even if this future is radically different or impossibly other, it remains a way of thinking arising from an involuntary thrownness into the world, it remains limited, shaped, and defined by this throwing.
For more articles on Heidegger’s philosophy, visit this webpage.