Heidegger on the ‘Conscience as the Call of Care’: From Chapter II of Division Two of Being and Time

This paper will explore Heidegger's critique of various psychological, biological, and theological conceptions of the fact of 'conscience' in human beings; this also requires a deep deconstruction of all major philosophers prior to Heidegger, most notably Plato, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, and the historical reception of Christian theology on original sin. It concludes with the idea of a critique of Heidegger in his noticeable inability to deal with traditions outside of Western philosophy and Christianity. At stake is set of fundamental questions: what can be posed as that which is Other to gentile (white) Western Christianity and its entwinement with major philosophers in the Western intellectual tradition, including Heidegger himself, opens a space for new inquiry.