ABSTRACT
Hubert Dreyfus' famous appropriation of Heidegger's analysis of Being-inthe-World as well as Mark Okrent's original depiction of Heidegger as a pragmatist, inspired generations of American philosophers, putting forward the priority of our practical engagement with the world over the theoretical attitude. This chapter elucidates their common and rather elliptical slogan about "the primacy of practice", while critically assessing its relevance both with regard to early Heidegger and to the things themselves. The chapter focuses particularly on the reciprocal dependence of understanding and discourse that Heidegger addresses, along with affectivity, as existentially equiprimordial or co-originary. It provides a more thorough explanation of the manner in which our conceptual thinking is embedded in shared practices, which necessarily include discursive interaction. While taking inspiration from both Crowell and Brandom, the chapter situates the principal contribution of discourse to the practical understanding in the possibility of articulating the meaning explicitly through engaging in the practice of giving and asking for reasons.
