Heidegger’s discussion of conscience is justified, as he always seems to do, by the inadequacy or incompleteness of the previous analysis of being-towards-death.
We always seem to need something further to add to the account, and conscience is the next thing Heidegger is selling.
The explanation is that his account of being-towards-death is formal or ontological, but it lacks a corresponding phenomenological confirmation at the “ontic” level.
In other words, where’s the evidence?
Heidegger wants to show that the way in which Dasein experiences what he calls conscience will provide the confirmation needed to move ahead.
Recall that his general aim in Division II is to provide an account of Dasein’s “authentic potentiality for being a whole”.
Simon Critchley, whose research this guide is based on, finds the discussion of conscience to be the “most exciting and challenging pages in Being and Time”.
The most challenging pages of Being and Time!?
This is going to be interesting.
The “Call” Of Cons…
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