Das Man: living as 'one' does (Heidegger)
'The they' or 'the one': the anonymous public way of being in which you do, think and feel what one does. Everyday life is mostly lived this way, absorbed in idle talk, curiosity and what everybody knows, and it spares you owning your choices. Heidegger contrasts it with authenticity, usually prompted by facing your own death.
What drives it
It relieves the burden of choosing by handing it to nobody in particular. Useful for spotting a decision, or a life, that has no author.
How it shows
Work
'That's just how it's done in this industry.' A career chosen because it is what people from that school do; a strategy copied from competitors; opinions in a meeting that track the latest article. Speech full of 'one', 'people' and 'you have to'. Nobody can say who decided. Idle talk: fluent commentary that never commits.
Relationships
Marriage, house and children on schedule because that is what one does at this age; holidays, tastes and opinions that match the social set; unease when asked what they personally want.
Self
You reach for what people do before you know what you think, or realise your ambitions are a list you absorbed.
What tells it apart
Conformity: Conformity is going along with a particular group under pressure, and the person often knows they're doing it; das Man is the default before any pressure arrives and is invisible to the person.
Socialised mind: Kegan's socialised mind is a developmental stage in which the self is made of others' expectations; das Man is a mode everyone slips into, including people fully capable of self-authorship.
Social proof: Social proof uses others as evidence under uncertainty; das Man operates even when the person is certain, because the question of choosing never comes up.
A test
Ask 'why this and not something else?' about a major life choice; an answer that names only what people do, with no personal reason, points to das Man.
Questions to carry
- Behind a major life choice, what reasons are given, personal ones or what people generally do?
- Which choice in my life did I make because it's what one does, and who would I have been otherwise?
How strong the research is
weak. A phenomenological description, not a testable construct; its empirical cousins are research on conformity and social norms, which is strong, and developmental work on the socialised mind.
Where it comes from
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, 1927
Sources
- Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1927)