Conscience ( Gewissen ) in Heidegger’s Being and Time
Unhooking from Traditional Metaphysics and its Resonance with Wang Yangming’s Liangzhi (良知)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8410057 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hongxia Li (0000-0002-5052-2742, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1773 • E-ISSN: 2332-0486 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00071773.2025.2603290 |
| OpenAlex | W7117455228 |
| Language | DE |
| References cited | 7 |
In Heidegger’s “originary ethics”, conscience transcends the framework of traditional metaphysics – moving beyond its rationalist epistemology, cognitive-moral judgments, and universalist religious imperatives – to reveal the phenomenological-ontological genesis of ethical consciousness. While providing neither epistemological foundations nor criteria for normative ethics, it constitutes the originary ground for moral discernment and behavioural normativity. Wang Yangming’s concept of liangzhi similarly entails an intuitive attunement to originary existence, yet exhibits limitations in its phenomenological articulation, particularly regarding the constitutive role of guilt within ethical consciousness. Crucially, both Heidegger’s conscience and Wang’s doctrines of liangzhi and the “unity of knowledge and action” share paramount significance: they awaken intentional consciousness towards conscience itself. This awakening manifests the human capacity for ethical awareness, forged through existential praxis – specifically through Dasein’s engaged being-in-the-world and its constitutive being-with others. Within this authentic mode of conscience and ethical relationality, Dasein’s relationships with itself, others, and the world are phenomenologically reconstituted
Conscience · Consciousness · Hegelianism · Metaphysics · Resonance (particle physics) · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |