An Existential Purpose to Find Place

Humans cannot escape the longing for truth. But truth, according to Heidegger, is not found in what is correct but through a process of unconcealing what has been hidden. Accordingly, the ultimate Truth that humanity yearns to unconceal is our existential purpose in the world.

Heidegger’s existential ontology, Dasein (Being), describes an anxious paradox: the awareness of our present existence and its linkage to the world’s past and future circumstances along with the awareness of a possibility for non-existence and non-identity. As Being is nurtured through dwelling in place, human beings naturally desire place and fear placelessness.

But if place is a physical or emotional environment where one can feel belonging and connectedness with other inhabitants, then placelessness is equivalent to the discomfort of not-belonging. Therefore, humanity’s ontological purpose and what we ultimately want to seek through knowledge and ethical choice-making is how to nurture our sense of belonging in the world.