This article begins with Socrates’ question and explores how the quest for truth is possible through Heidegger’s philosophy. It explains how the awareness of anxiety and mortality makes questions of truth and existence possible.
“It is not necessary to ask questions about what we already know. But it’s impossible to question what we don’t know at all. How, then, can we ask questions about truth if we do not know it?”
Socrates asked a young man, who explained that our souls learned the truth in the celestial realm of the Ideas, but when we began life on earth, we forgot it. Nevertheless, he said, we can ask questions because we have a vague recollection of the truth. But to a modern person who knows that there is no Idea World in heaven, Socrates’ explanation may sound like a joke. So how do we answer this paradox?
The philosopher Heidegger developed a thoughtful response to this paradox. First, he criticized Husserl’s account of existence. Husserl argued that the meaning of the world (the object) is constructed in subjective consciousness and that the meaning so assigned is universal, i.e., there is an ideational realm in human consciousness. However, Heidegger pointed out that Husserl’s claim that the ideational realm is entered into human subjective consciousness lacks sufficient grounds. This is merely a transposition of Socrates’ Idea from the heavens to the interior of consciousness.
Heidegger’s focus here is on human existence itself; he does not see humans as purely conscious beings who construct worlds or meanings. Rather, he saw humans as being thrown unwillingly into a world that they did not choose or create. Humans are forced to live in this world against their will. Heidegger called this state of affairs “pervasive. He argued that this immanence is recognized through our moods, especially anxiety. For example, we can all experience anxiety in our daily lives, such as, “Why am I living here?” or “Why should I live when I will soon die?” The “why am I here” anxiety makes us realize that we have been thrown into this world and that we cannot escape. In this moment of bloody awareness, we realize that one day we will die, and we begin to attempt to reconstruct the meaning of life. This is what we call “ki investment”.
To summarize, humans who are thrown into the world unintentionally become aware of their situation through anxiety and, at the same time, discover a new self and begin a new way of life. The awareness of death allows us to open ourselves to new possibilities. Anxiety forces us to face bloodshed, but it also allows us to realize the true meaning of existence and freedom.
Finally, let’s return to the original Socratic question. Heidegger’s answer is that even if we don’t know the truth, we can question it through the awareness of anxiety and mortality.
