Befindlichkeit

At the risk of boring whatever audience I may have, I would now like to philosophimicate for a little bit. Searching for a word that would capture the import of mood on our existence, Martin Heidegger, in classic German style, created the word befindlichkeit.

Typically translated simply as "foundness", befindlichkeit is perhaps more literally explained as the place that you find yourself at when, after looking around, you realize you're there. In this context the term "place" metaphorically refers to your sense of things, your feeling. More simply, befindlichkeit is what is commonly referred to as being in a mood.

But befindlichkeit is more than the mood you find yourself in--it is the mood you are thrown into. It is your "thrownness" into a world of feeling and meaning, a thrownness that you have little control over. Yes, you can put yourself in a position to be thrown into a mood; but you can not actually will yourself into a mood.

But why all this talk of befindlichkeit? Because your befindlichkeit (your foundness, your thrownness, your mood) shapes your attunement to the world. And your attunement is a filter that controls what appears in the world for you. It shapes the very interaction between you and what is real for you. For example, if you have a newfound awareness of MGs, suddenly you notice them everywhere when you once thought them extraordinarily rare. Attunement alters our perception; and perception is our only access to our interaction with the "objective" real world.

And so I acknowledge my thrownness and offer you a window into my world by sharing the music of my attunement with you.