59: The Existential Interpretation of the Conscience, and the Way Conscience is Ordinarily Interpreted
Heidegger begins paragraph 59 with a restatement of his definition of conscience:
“Conscience is the call of care from the uncanniness of Being-in-the-world — the call which summons Dasein to its ownmost potentiality-for-Being-guilty. And corresponding to this call, wanting-to-have-a-conscience has emerged as the way in which the appeal is understood”
BT, 335
We have seen that conscience is a call which returns us to our ourselves out of the they. We have also seen that authenticity involves wanting-to-have-a-conscience. In paragraphs 59 and 60, Heidegger will reach definite conclusions about what Dasein’s authenticity consists in.
Much of paragraph 59 is concerned with seeing how Heidegger’s existential interpretation of conscience squares with ordinary interpretations. Heidegger begins by asking whether this interpretation of conscience is compatible with the “ordinary” (Vulgär) one.
He …
