Heidegger, fenomenologia, hermenêutica, existênciaThe latter meaning is connected to the theme of “factical spatiality” which was introduced in §18 and is reintroduced in the following paragraph in the present section. The main reason for Heidegger’s use of the above double meaning of um is that he wants to make the point that what is spatially “around” us, i.e., the “there” of the “world around us,” is always at the same time what we intentionally care “about” or are concerned “about,” and vice-versa. Putting this in other terms, the world as the spatial “wherein” (Worin) of our “being in a world” is at the same time the intentional “whereto” or “toward-which” (Worauf ) of our care, and vice versa. Regarding these intentional-directional and spatial dimensions of “being in a world,” see endnotes 3 and 62. Thus in the present section and in previous ones, where um is used frequently as a preposition, as a component of a noun or verb, and as itself a noun, the following translations, many of which use both “around” and “about,” have been employed:
Uses of “um” with Sorge . In the previous paragraph, the phrase das, worum es in der Sorge geht has two meanings: (1) the intentional-directional meaning of “that which it is all about in care,” “that which is gone about in care,’ or “that about which care is concerned” and (2) the spatial meaning of “that wherein things move in care” or, more simply, “that wherein care goes around.” To complicate matters even more, Heidegger also has in mind the spatial dimension in the literal meaning of the conjunctive worum (“whereabout”) and of the following conjunctives used in the same paragraph and in the following one: worin, which has been translated literally as ‘wherein”; Wofür, which has the literal archaic meaning of “the wherefore,” but has consistently been translated as “the for-what”; Wozu, which means literally “the whereto,” but has consistently been translated as “the in-order-to”; and Womit, which means literally “the wherewith,” but has been translated as “the with-which.” For the above two reasons, the phrase das, worum es in der Sorge geht has been rendered as “that about which care is concerned, that wherein it goes around.” Similarly, Vorsorge und ihr “um” in §23 has been translated as “fore-care and its ‘about,’ what it goes ‘around’ in” (see endnote 68). Note that, even though Heidegger does not use the preposition urn (“about”) with them, besorgen is rendered as “to be concerned about and attend to,” Besorgtes as “what we are concerned about and attend to,” Besorgtsein as “being-of-concern” and “being-attended-to,” and Besorgen either as “concern,” “being-concerned-about,” or “being concerned about and attending to.” These renditions have been used for two reasons. First, they felicitously help establish the first of the two meanings of um as “(care or concern) about.” Second, and more importantly, they express something of the strong transitive meaning of the German terms they translate. Etwas besorgen means to “procure” or “attend” something and is used by Heidegger in connection with the term Aufgehen in (“absorption in” in the literal sense of “going [transitively] straight into” something) which occurs in §§6 and 26. Etwas besorgen does not have the intransitive and reflexive sense of the English expression “to concern oneself with something.” A literal translation using “to concern” would in fact have to be something like “I concern something.” Nor is the verbal and transitive meaning of the gerund Besorgen (“procuring,” “attending”) captured by the static and subject-oriented term “(our) concern,” which is the conventional English translation I have sometimes used. Regarding “care” and “concern,” see also endnotes 17 and 62.
Uses of “um” as prefix. Depending on the context, either “dealing(s),” “going about dealings,” or “going around” is employed for Umgang , a term which occurs throughout Heidegger’s course. By itself, however, “going about dealings” is intended to express not only the German term’s conventional meaning of “dealings,” but also something of its literal meaning of “going around” or “circulating.” The two occurrences of the gerund Umgehen in §21 have been translated as “going-around (in dealings).” Its occurrence in the sentence quoted at the start of this endnote has been rendered as “going about dealings in the sense of a going around.” Umwelt in the present section and in §18 is rendered as “environing world, world round-about” or simply as “environing world.” The use of “world round-about” is intended to convey the double meaning of um (“around,” “about”) in Umwelt and should be read as expressing the point that the world which is “around” us is also a world “about” which we care or are concerned in our dealings with it, and vice versa. In §21, “sphere (of others)” is used for Umkreis and “stands, lies around” for steht, liegt herum. “To circumscribe (the there, possibility, sight, situation , etc.)” is used for occurrences of umgrenzen in the introduction to Part One and in §§3, 6, 18, and 21.
“Um” as noun. In addition to the above-mentioned use of “its ‘about,’ what it goes ‘around’ in” for the norm ihr “um” in §23 (see endnote 68), “the roundabout” and “environs” are used for the das Um in §26 and in section ΧII of the Appendix and for das Umhafte in §§18, 21, and 26.
Connected Spatial Terms: “wo,” “nächst ,” and “Öffentlichkeit .” Especially in §18 and in the present section, Heidegger uses a number of conjunctives containing wo (“where”) as well as nouns coined from these conjunctives in order to describe different dimensions of the world as the “where” or “there” of Dasein ’s “whiling” “at the particular time.” So as to maintain their connection with the above spatial terms formed from um (“around”), other spatial terms, and the general theme of “spatiality” in the present section, I have used “where” in the following ways when this was possible and appropriate: woraus (“wherefrom, out of which, and on the basis of which”). Woraus (“the wherefrom, out-of-which, and on-the-basis-of-which”), worin (“wherein”), Worin (“the wherein”), worauf (“whereto”), Worauf (“the whereto,” “toward-which”), worum (“wherein,” “about which”). As for Wofär, Wozu, and Womit, which occur in the present and preceding paragraphs in Heidegger’s text , it was not possible to use archaic English conjunctives to provide the following respective literal translations of them: “the wherefore,” “the whereto,” and “the wherewith.” Rather, “the for-what,” “the in-order-to,” and “the with-which” were used in the present and previous sections. Nor was worum in the above-discussed phrase das, worum es in der Sorge geht able to be translated literally and archaically as “whereabout” (“that whereabout care is concerned”). Rather, as explained, “about which’ and “wherein” (“that about which care is concerned, that wherein it goes around”) had to be used. The reader should nonetheless keep in mind the above literal archaic translations.
Note also the following terms which are formed from the superlative nächst (“nearest,” “closest”) and have been used in the last two chapters in connection with Dasein’s spatiality: nächste (“closest to us,” “immediate”), zunächst (“closest to us,” “initially”), and Zunächst und Demnächst (“initial givens now and soon to come which are closest to us”). See also endnote 35 regarding these terms. Finally, note that the present section reintroduces the term Öffentlichkeit in connection with Dasein’s spatiality and plays on its literal meaning of “openness.” It is thus translated both as “publicness” and as “the open space of publicness.” See also endnote 34 regarding “the open space of publicness.”
