Definitions HQ

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a 'mood', not an emotion, and unlike an emotion, it is not about any particular being, but about beings as a whole and about one's being-in-the-world as a whole.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a mood in which everyday things lose their significance and 'everyday familiarity collapses'. It s the existential mode of the 'not at home'.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a mood that, in its extreme form, discloses things in their full but heretofore concealed strangeness as what is radically other.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a point at which we, in our everyday existence, are forced to face the way in which our experience is organized around our own death.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠experienced as an uneasy, indistinct, constant background feeling that is literally about nothing and in another sense it is about a not-yet-discovered latent something, because the mood is not yet intense enough to be truly revealing.

Anxiety (n.) is, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠in fact, pervaded not by confusion (as fear is) but by a 'peculiar calm' which causes dasein to flee itself and fall into the relative comfort provided by the public world of 'the they'.

Anxiety (n.) is, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠in its extreme form, characterized by an intense and overwhelming sensation that disrupts our normal sense of existence, extremely jarring because it reveals the naked truth of ourselves and the world, stripped of all our familiar ways of perceiving things.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not something that can (or should) be overcome, insofar as it is a fundamental structure of the human condition. It is a structure that serves to make manifest our relationship to 'the nothing'.

Anxiety (n.) reveals ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠to one that for the most part they are not living as an autonomous agent responsible for their own choices, but is perfectly at home living in an everyday, inauthentic mode that mimics the patterns exhibited by those around them, and allows their choices to be made passively and without a vivid sense of accountability.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a mode in which one strips the world and all of one's engagements with the world of meaning, thus allowing the self (as the possibility for understanding itself) to slip away from itself.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠that 'uncanny' (unheimlich, 'not at home') feeling that makes one feel homeless. In anxiety one realize (and face) just how much they are generally absorbed in the world and how content they generally are to live a life disburdened of personal answerability.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠rooted in our dim realization that the world is ungrounded, that there's no reason why one has to do things this way. It isn't because it's rational to do things this way, it isn't because God ordered us to do things this way, it isn't because human nature requires we do them this way

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠our response to the fundamentally unsettling character of being Dasein; namely, our response to the fact that there is no human nature.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not a universal structure, The Greeks didn’t have it, Christians didn’t have it. It is related to our technological and nihilistic understanding of Being; a rootless, anxious-making understanding of Being.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a state in which Dasein finds itself face to face with the ‘nothing’ of the possible impossibility of its existence.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an opening up of the world in an ontological sense (one to do with intelligibility) in which I am not in the world, and the possibility of a world without me (the possibility of my not-Being-in-the-world) is revealed to me.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a mood in which specific entities and their meanings seem irrelevant, inconsequential, insignificant.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a moment of meaningless confusion, but "meaningless" not in the sense that it is trivial, but in the sense that it involves a deep crisis of meaning.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a feeling of alienation, homelessness, unsettledness.

Anxiety (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠revealing of ‘earth’ by calling into question the web of meanings that constitutes the world.