Why You Shouldn’t Wish Your Life Away. A Heidegger-Inspired Guide to Time.
Unraveling Existence, Embracing the Moment, and Finding Meaning in the Tick-Tock of Life
(You can find Heidegger’s biography following this essay.)
I. Introduction and Personal Reflection
I cannot understand how people can wish for this day to end as quickly as possible. Moreover, they wish for this week to be over. It’s not uncommon to hear: “This year can go away!” Is this meant seriously? I’ve made it a habit to ask. And yes, it was always meant seriously.
Frightening. Don’t these people realize that life is finite? This observation has prompted me to engage more intensively with the concept of time. For someone who has studied philosophy, it was natural to deal with the thoughts of deceased thinkers rather than, say, modern physics. In doing so, I inevitably came across Martin Heidegger, whose philosophy of time is both interesting and highly controversial (as is Heidegger’s character, which I don’t want to discuss here).
However, before we turn to Heidegger’s ideas, it’s worth taking a look at the philosophical examination of time throughout history. This will help us to place Heidegger’s contribution in a broader context.
