On the modulations of silence in Heidegger: a reading from Being and time

Abstract

This article explores one of the issues that, although discreetly, engenders and motivates many aspects of the reading proposed by Heidegger in Being and Time regarding the human phenomenon taken from everyday life, that is, Dasein. Although it is not intended to be a completely authorial reading of the theme, there is a certain originality in the exploration carried out. In short, we try to read the issue of silence in its different modulations, that is, in the different accents through which the German philosopher wanted to touch it in his most representative work of the first phase. For this, the approach is concentrated around the two main paragraphs from which the discussion on silence emerges, as follows: § 34, which thematizes language as a way of being of the human being, and § 60, which gives visibility to the problem of conscience as a way of restoring an authentic life. In the end, it is possible to perceive some relationship between the two moments, constituting, perhaps, precisely what is presented as the central objective of the article: to provide for the catalyzing and articulating character of the problem of silence for the understanding of the ways of being of the human condition according to Heidegger. Principled as an interpretation of Heideggerian thought, the text gains moments of greater intuitive freedom and, perhaps, a contribution to the present moment of thought and philosophical reflection.