THE PROBLEM OF BEING IN A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS

Abstract

Victor Hugo claimed: Men live, and things exist. That is to say, human existence is not, and should not be, akin to the existence of things which are merely here or there. Instead, human beings actively live, and should live actively. Yet, what does it mean that human beings live? Martin Heidegger insisted that human beings do not just occur in the world along other kinds of beings; instead, in their very existence, their existence become an issue and concern for them; human beings are self-conscious beings. Heidegger dubbed the human being as “Dasein”, which means being there. He saw the human being to be an agent whose agency structure includes self-consciousness. Jean-Paul Sartre argued that human beings must not exist in the mode of being-in-itself, but should be in the mode of being-for-itself; in life, we must not practice bad faith. For Sartre, the human being is a being of no-thingness. These thinkers all hold that human existence must not be a thing-like existence. Living, what a burden for humanity! Human living must not be thing-like existence, what a requirement!