Prenote
Dread (German: Angst) plays a crucial role in SZ I.1 by giving experiential access to ex-sistence as a unity, which §41 will then analyze in terms of Sorge. Dread is also a central theme in the inaugural lecture that Heidegger gave as Husserl’s successor at Freiburg University on Wednesday, July 24, 1929 (GA 9: 103–22=82–96).351 That lecture draws on this section.
M-R and S-S translate SZ’s Angst as “anxiety,” which is not what Heidegger has in mind. Anxiety is a psychological condition of intense and excessive worry, often accompanied by panic. It is treatable with medications. For Heidegger, on the other hand, Angst is a moment of profound calm (gebannte Ruhe) when one suddenly has a first-hand insight into one’s ex-sistence. I paraphrase it as “dread” in the archaic sense of “awe,” a moment of wonder, surprise, and uncertainty that sets me back on my heels.352
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Annotations
¶3: the only reason I can flee from myself is that I am a priori thrown into myself. The German is: “Nur sofern Dasein ontologisch wesenhaft durch die ihm zugehörende Erschlossenheit überhaupt vor es selbst gebracht ist, kann es vor ihm fliehen.” The sense is: The openness that is intrinsic to ex-sistence entails that, whether I am aware of it or not, I am always face-to-face with myself, and that is the only reason I can flee myself.
¶3: That means I can come to understand it if I turn and face it and work out its meaning. German is: “Innerhalb des ontischen ‘weg von,’ das in der Abkehr liegt, kann in phänomenologisch interpretierender ‘Hinkehr’ das Wovor der Flucht verstanden und zu Begriff gebracht werden,” that is: As I personally run “away from” myself, I can experientially and interpretively “turn to” the self I am fleeing and “see” it.
¶4: Our method is to follow out that experience, to stay attuned to it, and to bring it to light as it unfolds of itself. The paragraph is a thumbnail sketch of what Heidegger’s hermeneutic of experience entails. The key phrase here is “im interpretierenden Mit- und Nachgehen innerhalb eines befindlichen Verstehens.” (SZ 185.15–18=230.1–4). Heidegger’s hermeneutic is a matter of
351. Cf. also Heidegger et al., “Was ist Metaphysik? Urfassung / What Is Metaphysics? Original Version.”
352. Cf. Zurückweichen vor: SZ 185.30=230.16 and GA 9: 114.5=90.15. Dread is cognate with wonder: cf. GA 11: 22.9–13=79.14–20. Cf. Shakespeare Henry VI, Part 2, act 5, scene 1, 17, “his dread majesty.”