Human Freedom from Martin Heidegger's Perspective

Abstract

This research presents an examination of German philosopher Martin Heidegger's understanding of freedom and the equivocations that shaped his thought in this regard. At the beginning, Heidegger repudiated the idea that freedom results from the positivism of the human being, his/her whims and desires, believing that it cannot be manifested in going beyond orders, prohibitions or obligations, nor  can it be established mentally since any true explanation of its reality should be grounded  on the fact that it is a question based on thinking about the "Dasein" (existence), which depends, in its turn-  with respect to understanding its reality- on revealing the meaning of being. However, Heidegger changed his position and went beyond the question of "Dasein" since he could find it useless in exploring the question of freedom. Reaching such an understanding, he linked human freedom with ontological openness of existence bounding freedom, as such, to the ontological condition.