Martin Heidegger was interested in philosophy because he read the works of Edmund Husserl. His studies went beyond phenomenology and included existentialism and analytic philosophy. He wanted to examine what it means to be human and how we engage with the world. He believed that philosophy should help us understand our place in the universe and the meaning of life. He also believed that philosophy should not be limited to abstract thought about concepts like God or the soul, and instead should attempt to address questions about the very nature of humanity itself.
Heidegger’s theory goes further in his book Being and Time, by saying that we are aware of ourselves as existing. We see this as a part of the phenomenal world because we are experiencing it. As objects in space, time, and therefore, in reality, we must be here, we cannot be anywhere else. So we look at our own existence as something that happens in the space of time. Our life is then framed by time, from the moment we are born until the very last moments of our lives. We exist within our life, becoming aware that it will eventually end. Our lives can appear pointless if there are no objective certainties, so we try to find meaning in them. Death is the furthest point where we reach our existence; it shows us what we mean to others and ourselves. As we get older, we become more aware of our own mortality, and how we should live authentically.
