Heidegger on Selfhood
Jesús Adrián Escudero
Abstract
The relationship that a person establishes with his or her world—the ways in which the self tries to gain a
genuine understanding of itself—is a central question in Heidegger’s thought. “Being and Time” is largely an
account of what it means to be a self. Keeping in mind the question of the self, the present essay develops the
following three issues: First, the Heideggerian notion of the self is situated in the context of contemporary
theories of selfhood. Second, the practical dimension of Dasein’s existence is analyzed. Each individual lives in a
significant network of productive relationships that are projected toward the future and are constitutively defined
by the structure of care. Third, the phenomenological and existential dimension of Dasein is examined by
highlighting the irreducible character of the first-person perspective manifested in the phenomenon of the call of
conscience.
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