Individuation and Heidegger’s Ontological “Intuitionism”

Abstract

When Heidegger insists that each of us is distinctive because “the most radical individuation” is both possible and necessary for us, he might mean: (1) it is possible and necessary to be an individual in the most radical way; or(2a) it is possible and necessary to engage in the project of becoming a distinct individual in the most radical way; or(2b) it is possible and necessary to see the distinct individual that I am, and to do so in the most radical way. Although all three readings are possible and defensible, I’d like to explore in this paper a (2b)-type reading of Heidegger’s claim. What would it mean to see the distinct individual that I am in the most radical way?