ressentir
sensing

NT: Sensing (Empfinden), 137, 152-153, 163-164, sensation (Sinnlichkeit), 97, 271fn (sensuous), 271fn (senses) (BTJS)

Why did Heidegger choose such an awkward and peculiar term (Befindlichkeit) for moods or emotions? Interestingly, there is another German word with a similar dual aspect: Empfindung. This relatively common word occurs, for example, in the first of Friedrich Schiller’s letters in Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen and has been rendered into English by Reginald Snell as “sensibility.” The German word combines the meanings of “feeling” and “perception”; it can also be rendered as “sensation,” for example a Schmerzempfindung is a “pain-sensation.” Interestingly, Empfindung is etymologically related to sich befinden via the common root finden, “to find.” Why, then, did Heidegger not use Empfindung in order to combine the meanings of “mood” or “emotion” and “to be located in” in the sense of “to find oneself in a particular situation” (sich in einer bestimmten Situation finden)? The answer is probably that Empfindsamkeit is a German word meaning “sensitivity” or, in some contexts, “hypersensitivity”; it is also the name of an 18th century movement in German literature characterized by an exaggerated emphasis on emotion and feeling. Heidegger probably felt that coining a new word was required in order to avoid confusion. (Sembera)