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In Heidegger's view, man has a tendency to lose himself in his world and "forget" his mortality, and by extension that of his world. He falls in with the crowd (the "they"), engages in idle chatter, lets himself be absorbed by average everydayness all in order to avoid the fundamental question of his existence and its responsibility. We are inauthentic creatures: […] Heidegger claims, a confrontation with our finitude, an "authentic being-toward-death." It would mean heeding the call of conscience, to exhibit "care" toward the manifestation of Being. And above all, it would demand a new “resoluteness”, which signifies “letting oneself be summoned out of one's lostness in the ‘they.’”

Could you please help me with understanding the bold passage from the above excerpt. It comes from Heidegger's Being and Time. (I am especially confused by the phrase "to be summoned out of".) Does it mean that the man to live the authentic life should gather one's strength and experience his/her lostness outside of the crowd, outside of the other people?

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    To understand it we'd need more context. If the whole book is like that then we'd probably need lots of context.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:15
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    Heidegger wrote in German (this is from Sein und Zeit) and this sounds like a much-to-literal translation. Of course, he probably wrote in deutcher Philosophensprache, which may mean that by far the safest way to translate it is literally.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:33
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    @curiousdannii: it was originally written in German. Of course it's not an exact quote. It's probably an exact quote from one translation, but there may be other translations.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:35
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    This passage may have been retranslated by the guy who quoted it, and might not be found in any translation of Being and Time.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:38
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    "Summoned of" is indeed nonsensical. "Summoned out of" is OK.
    – GEdgar
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:39

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Not attempting to decipher the entire piece--

"Summoned out of one's lostness" makes sense, as a metaphor of sorts. (Though it certainly is not any sort if idiom.) In this sense, "summoned" basically means getting the individual's attention, as if awakening from sleep or a trance or whatever. "Lostness" here could mean either simple "aimlessness", or something akin to depression, or, more likely, a loss of personal direction due to being distracted by external forces (such as "the crowd" ==> the "they").

So "letting oneself be summoned out of one's lostness in the ‘they’" means exercising a "resoluteness" such that one consciously avoids the external distractions of "they" and instead focuses the mind on whatever it is that Heidegger thinks is so gol danged important here.

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It refers to allowing oneself to be summoned out of an inauthentic existence, one driven by others' perceptions, or rather one's perception of others' perceptions of oneself, but a more complete explanation may be found on page 29 of Adorno and Heidegger: Philosophical Questions. It fully explains what it is believed that Heidegger meant.

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    Please summarise the main points. This is a link-only answer.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:31
  • @Andrew Leach : Main point now summarised.
    – Benjamin Harman
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 14:35

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