Introduction
In our previous lesson, we established the concepts of thrownness (Geworfenheit) and facticity (Faktizität), which describe the unchosen, "given" character of our existence. We are delivered over to a situation—a body, a culture, a historical moment—that we did not create. This raised a crucial question: how do we actually become aware of this thrownness? It is not an intellectual conclusion we reach, but something we experience in a more fundamental way.
Today, we will answer that question. Your learning outcome is to explain the role of mood (Befindlichkeit/attunement) in disclosing Dasein's Being-in-the-world. For Heidegger, moods are not mere psychological side effects. They are a fundamental existential structure—the primary way we find ourselves already in a world, attuned to it in a particular manner. Understanding this is not only key to grasping Heidegger's project but also sets the stage for Merleau-Ponty's later focus on the affective, lived body.
1. Attunement: More Than a Feeling
First, we must be precise with our terminology. The German term Heidegger uses is Befindlichkeit. While often translated as "state-of-mind" or "disposedness," the translation "attunement" better captures the relational aspect. Even more revealing is the term's root in the German phrase Wie befinden Sie sich?—literally, "How do you find yourself?".
Befindlichkeit is the structure of how Dasein finds itself situated in the world. It's an ontological category, not a psychological one. Heidegger is not giving a theory of emotions; he is describing a fundamental feature of our being that makes emotions possible in the first place.
This first video introduces the concept and distinguishes it from a mere "psychology of feeling."
Being in a Mood - Attunement, Thrownness & Facticity | Heidegger - Being and Time
This clip from the channel 'Singularity as Sublimity' explains the meaning of 'Befindlichkeit' and establishes it as an 'existential'—a fundamental structure of Dasein's being—rather than a simple psychological state.
Watch from 01:57 to 03:01. Focus on the literal meaning of the term ('how do you find yourself') and the crucial distinction between Heidegger's ontological account and a psychological theory of feelings.
A mood, in this Heideggerian sense, isn't something "inside" you that then "colors" an external world. Instead, it is the very condition that allows a world to be disclosed to you as a whole in a certain way. It is pre-subjective and pre-objective; it's the background sense of belonging to a world that you must already have for any specific objects or thoughts to appear at all.
This short introductory reading from the paper "Heidegger on Mood" by Matthew Ratcliffe clarifies this point perfectly.
This reading explains that moods are not generalized emotions that 'color' perception but are the very condition for entities to be accessible to us. They constitute the range of ways things can matter to us.
Please read the first four paragraphs of the paper, ending just before the paragraph that begins 'Of course, moods do not fully determine...'. Focus on the claim that mood 'makes it possible first of all to direct oneself towards something'.
2. The Threefold Disclosure of Attunement
Attunement is a mode of disclosure (Erschlossenheit). This means it opens up or reveals fundamental aspects of our existence. Heidegger identifies three key things that attunement discloses. We will examine them step-by-step, using an academic paper that rigorously lays out this structure.
The paper, "Existential Tonality in Heidegger’s Being and Time," offers a systematic breakdown that should resonate with your preference for structured reasoning.
[PDF] Existential Tonality in Heidegger's Being and Time
This paper by Matthew Raymond provides a detailed analysis of 'Befindlichkeit' and its role in Dasein's existence. We will focus on the section where the author systematically unpacks the three ontological characteristics Heidegger assigns to attunement.
For this part of the lesson, please have this paper open. We will be reading specific subsections from 'Section 2: Attunement, Modes, Variation.' I will guide you to each part in turn.
First Characteristic: Disclosing Thrownness
This is the direct link to our last lesson. Attunement is how our thrownness is revealed to us. The fact that moods "come over us"—that we don't choose them, but find ourselves already in them—is a direct manifestation of our thrownness. In a mood, Dasein is brought face-to-face with the brute fact that it is and has been delivered over to its existence.
Reading Task:
In the paper "Existential Tonality," please read the subsection titled "First Ontological Characteristic of Attunement" (it starts on page 17). Pay attention to how moods reveal our "receptivity" and "dependency on a world that exceeds our... grasp," especially in the analysis of a "bad mood" making Being manifest as a "burden."
This disclosure of thrownness is often something we turn away from. In a bad mood, we might busy ourselves with tasks to escape the feeling. Yet, even in this turning away, the mood has already disclosed the very thing we are fleeing from: the burdensome fact of our existence.
Second Characteristic: Disclosing Being-in-the-World as a Whole
A mood doesn't just attach to one object; it attunes us to the world as a whole. The world doesn't appear as a collection of neutral objects. In joy, the entire world can seem vibrant and full of possibility. In profound boredom, the entire world can recede into a flat, remarkable indifference. The mood sets the tone for the whole.
Reading Task:
Now, read the subsection "Second Ontological Characteristic of Attunement" (page 19). Focus on Heidegger's claim that a mood "comes neither from 'without' nor from 'within,' but arises from being-in-the-world itself." This reinforces that attunement is a holistic feature of our existence, not a subjective state.
To see a concrete example of this, let's watch a short clip discussing Heidegger's analysis of profound boredom from his lecture course, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics.
Martin Heidegger, What Is Metaphysics | Totality of Beings and Attunement or Mood | Core Concepts
In this lecture, Gregory Sadler explains how a fundamental mood like profound boredom can reveal 'beings as a whole' in a way that intellectual effort cannot.
Watch from 06:10 to 08:20. Notice how this 'global boredom' is different from being bored with a specific thing, and how it 'removes all things... into a remarkable indifference,' thereby revealing them as a whole.
Third Characteristic: Disclosing How Things Can Matter
Perhaps most importantly, attunement is what makes it possible for anything to matter to us at all. Before any object can appear as useful, as beautiful, or as threatening, we must already be attuned in a way that allows for the possibility of usefulness, beauty, or threat to show up. A mood opens a specific field of significance.
Reading Task:
Finally, please read the subsection "Third Ontological Characteristic of Attunement" (page 21). The key insight here is that attunement is the "existential structure for the emergence of 'mattering.'" It is only because we are "touched by the world in its mattering to us that things are freed for their disclosure."
The video we started with provides excellent examples of this. Love for another person, for instance, is a mood that allows you to see and appreciate things about them that would otherwise be hidden. The mood of fear frees the "fearsome" to be encountered.
Being in a Mood - Attunement, Thrownness & Facticity | Heidegger - Being and Time
This clip revisits the idea of disclosure, showing how moods allow things to matter and concern us, thereby opening up specific ways of understanding them.
Watch from 06:53 to 08:37. Pay close attention to the examples of how love or charity can be necessary for accessing certain truths, illustrating that moods are not obstacles to understanding but conditions for it.
This visual diagram can help you situate Befindlichkeit (labeled here as 'State of Mind Mood') within the overall structure we've been building.
Conclusion
Today we've moved from the what of our given situation (facticity) to the how of its disclosure (attunement). You've seen that for Heidegger, moods are far from trivial feelings; they are a cornerstone of his analytic of Dasein.
Key Takeaways:
Befindlichkeit(Attunement) is an ontological structure that describes how Dasein finds itself in the world. It is not a subjective psychological state but a pre-subjective condition for experience.- Attunement performs a threefold disclosure:
- It reveals our thrownness by the way moods "come over us," bringing us face-to-face with the unchosen "that-it-is" of our existence.
- It discloses Being-in-the-world as a whole, setting a holistic tone for our experience rather than just coloring individual objects.
- It opens up the very possibility for things to matter to us, freeing entities to be encountered as significant within a specific field of meaning.
Preview of the Next Lesson:
We have now assembled the core components of Heidegger's early philosophy: Dasein as Being-in-the-world, the modes of ready-to-hand and present-at-hand, and the disclosive roles of thrownness and attunement. To solidify your understanding of Heidegger's unique contribution, our next lesson will be a direct comparison: Articulate Heidegger's key departures from Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. We will see precisely how Heidegger's emphasis on a situated, attuned, worldly existence constitutes a radical break from his teacher's project, a break that proved decisive for the entire future of phenomenology, including the work of Merleau-Ponty.