In 1918, at the end of World War I, when Europe was facing many social, political, and economical

problems. Economical effect of World War I was monumental. France and Germany lost almost 80% of
their male population aged between 15 to 48. At the end of that war, many social revolutions were
sprouted.

In this era of absolute social, political, and economical disintegration, some modern thinkers and
philosophers were finding philosophical meanings of life and human existence and how we can avoid
such social chaos in the future. In such a realm, a German philosopher Edmund Husserl come up with his
new philosophical idea, he developed a new method in response to such social disintegration which
would impart complete sureness to a crumbling civilization.
Husserl called it “transcendental Phenomenology”, he argues, objects cannot be regarded as things in
themselves but as things posited, or “intended”, by consciousness.
Martin Heidegger was a student of Edmund Husserl and is viewed as the successive “intellectual pillar”
in the phenomenological movement following Husserl. His publication being and Time challenged the
existing phenomenological ideas of Husserl, asserting that it was primarily descriptive and was based on
the key structures of consciousness.
Heidegger’s form of phenomenology is generally regarded as ‘hermeneutical phenomenology’.
It was termed as this because it focuses upon the questions of historical interpretations, instead of on
transcendental consciousness. Heidegger characterizes his philosophical epistemology as a
hermeneutics of being, as a matter of self-interpretation and the word hermeneutics means the science
or art of interpretation. It was initially associated with the interpretation of the bible and the sacred
scriptures.
Heidegger advocates the ideals of his phenomenology as an explication of “the meaning of being” and
one of interpretation of experience.
Heidegger negates the notion that a human being is subject and the whole world around is an object,
and the subject is a mere spectator of the object espousing that both subject and object were
inextricable.
Heidegger challenges the notion of the Cartesian dichotomy of subject and object. Husserl’s
phenomenology also denies the concept of humans as subjects and presents them both as inseparable.
Heidegger introduces the idea of being as ’’ Dasein’’ in presenting being as inextricable.
Heidegger’s philosophy addresses existence as “being in the world,” understood as something thing
which is embedded or rooted inside the external world and is inextricable from the world.
From this point, Heidegger rejects Husserl’s idea of phenomenological reduction; all realities must be
treated as pure phenomena, by bracketing off anything which is beyond our immediate consciousness,
the external world must be reduced to the contents of our consciousness.
The key concept in Heidegger’s philosophy is, to discover our find out the basic meaning of everyday
ordinary human existence. The Dasein exist in the world, being there in this world he exists with other
beings, objects and entities. So existing in this world as an individual and within their social context.
According to Heidegger Dasein’s deliverance in the world is through throwness. Dasein is thrown into
this world, so he is the product of the time, place and culture within which he is born, lives and dies. We
are thrown into an already set of circumstances and our freedom lies in the acceptance of our thrown
possibility. Dasein or the being is a historical being because his consciousness is the product of his time
and space. We have an instrumental attitude towards nature just like a tool, hammer ready- to –hand,
we take things for granted, but when these tools break down or go missing, we cease to take and treat
them as separate entities and auspicious objects.
Being in the world of already set circumstances we accept and surrenders to already set cultural norms,
traditions and ways of living, thinking and communicating without considering our unique individuality.
We forget our own individual being, when we hear the chatters of others and start living as others like
us to be, Heidegger calls its in authenticity, we need to grasp our psychological social and professional
outlook and then rise above it to a more universal perspective. In doing so we are moving from in
authenticity towards authenticity.
Authenticity is the stage where an individual being becomes more resolute, steadfast, truth full and
responsible for his action. What will help us to pull anyway from in authenticity; meaninglessness which
is an existentialist crisis is an intense focus on our death. Authenticity is a kind of special moment in the
life of Dasein, a moment of vision when there is clarity. A man overcomes his fear of dread and accepts
death as an inevitable reality It is the moment when we become meaningful to our true existence. When
a man struggles as a conscious being with empathy and engagement then we become more authentic of
our existence.