Being-in-the-World and Forms of Life

Division I of Being and Time offers an analysis of Dasein’s average everyday existence. Heidegger’s use of ‘Dasein’ to talk about human beings draws attention to the way in which we are embedded in a world that has significance to us. In particular, he observes how things show up to us within a holistic network of significance as ready-to-hand equipment, which he distinguishes from the atomistic thinghood of presence-at-hand. This account of practical engagement echoes Wittgenstein’s treatment of language as embedded in significant activities and forms of life. For Wittgenstein, a grammatical investigation of our criteria for the use of words is also an investigation of the significant world in which those words have a use.