Das Man (The 'They')

Definition

Das Man (translated as "the 'they'" or "the One") is heidegger-martin's term for the anonymous public authority that constitutes everyday inauthentic existence. "The 'who' is the neuter, the 'they' [das Man]... We take pleasure and enjoy ourselves as they take pleasure; we read, see, and judge about literature and art as they see and judge" (Being and Time, §27, H. 126-127). The they-self is characterized by distantiality (keeping others at a distance), averageness (what belongs to all belongs to no one), and levelling down (suppressing all priority). The they tranquilizes Dasein, disburdens it of its ownmost possibilities, and alienates it from authenticity.

Key Thinkers

• heidegger-martin — developed the concept in Being and Time (1927) as the existential structure of everyday inauthenticity; the they is "nothing definite, and which all are, though not as the sum."
• arendt-hannah — engages critically with the they-concept through her analysis of the social—the hybrid realm where household concerns become public; conformism replaces action.
• felski-rita — analyzes the everyday as a site of both subjection and resistance; the they's tranquilization vs. the creativity of ordinary life.

Related Concepts

• fallenness — Dasein's absorption in the they and the world of concern.
• everyday-life — the they prescribes the kind of Being of everydayness.
• spectacle — the they's publicness as the accumulation of images; Debord's critique parallels Heidegger's.
• consumerism — the they's averageness as the culture-ideology of consumerism (Sklair).
• (Authenticity — the they-self vs. the authentic Self that has been taken hold of in its own way. No page yet — see log.md.)

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss das Man:

• heidegger-1927-being-and-time — the foundational analysis (§26-27); distantiality, averageness, levelling down, publicness.
• arendt-1958-the-human-condition — the social as conformism; the they's tranquilization vs. action's disclosure.
• felski-2000-invention-of-everyday-life — the everyday as both site of subjection and resistance.
• sklair-2010-iconic-architecture-culture-ideology-consumerism — the culture-ideology of consumerism as the they's averageness.

Open Questions

• Is the they inherently oppressive, or does it enable shared meaning and social coordination?
• How does das Man relate to spectacle and instagrammability? Is social media the contemporary form of the they?
• Can architecture resist the they, or is it always already complicit?