Single Idea 22160

[catalogued under 11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 1. Perceptual Realism / b. Direct realism]

Full Idea

The less we stare at the hammer-Thing, and the more we seize hold of it and use it, the more primordial does our relationship to it become. ...The kind of Being which equipment possesses... we call 'readiness-to-hand' [Zuhandenheit].

Gist of Idea

Our relationship to a hammer strengthens when we use

Source

Martin Heidegger (Being and Time [1927], I.3.15)

Book Reference

Heidegger,Martin: 'Being and Time' [Blackwell 1962], p.98


A Reaction

This example would be well at home in the writings of the pragmatists. It is also an important example for existentialists. In analytic philosophy we might say the experience combines perception with direct exerience of causation.

Related Idea

Idea 22161 Readiness-to-hand defines things in themselves ontologically [Heidegger]