Martin Heidegger's Early Concept Of World And His Criticism Against Descartes' Concept Of World

As one of the important concepts in the history of philosophy,the term “world”is a concept of rich connotations and countless sages had attempted their own elucidation of the world concept from different angles.Heidegger's ontological interpretation of the world concept is of certain level of originality.The term world had been defined from an ontological perspective by Heidegger,hence the dasein-world relationship was unequivocally confirmed as in the world is merely the circumstance displayed by dasein.Dasein exists in the world,namely dasein itself has understanding of the world,which serves as the display of the world as well.The existence of dasein is not esotericism,but an overall understanding of its own existence and activities in the world,which is the so-called pre-ontological understanding.As one of the renowned western philosophers,Descartes started from the basis of universal doubt and established the unimpeachable subject of “cogito”,and the importance of man was lifted.Descartes' philosophy freed people from the theological shackles in medieval times,highlighting the importance of man by upholding rationalism.The world is a cognition subject of human,and the cognition of all things shall start from human.Human becomes the scale that measures all things.Undoubtedly,Descartes created a new era and the first principle of his metaphysics,which is “ego cogito ergo sum”,became the foundation of modern subjective philosophy.The world had been specified as an extension by Descartes,which is a component that constitutes the spatiality of things.Descartes identified the world as a vorhandensein,and it is merely a subject of theoretical studies.Heidegger,however,was more focused on the adverse effects of Descartes' philosophy,and he considered the world concept of Descartes closed over the real“world” concept.Believing that the world is essentially an extension,a vorhandensein and a still subject severs the relationship between man and the world,leads to the opposition of subjective and objective bodies,and causes crisis between man and theworld.Heidegger placed the man-world relationship in the ontological framework of“being-in-the-world”,and altered the man-world relationship in modern times.Heidegger's criticism against Descartes' concept of world provides significant references for modern society.