ABSTRACT
Existentialism has been marked by Sartre’s claim that ‘existence’ precedes ‘essence,’ that concrete life cannot be governed by abstract universals. Traditional philosophy has typically connected essences with concepts, mental constructs that provide grounding knowledge of perceived particulars in experience. The problem is that existentialism, as a philosophy of existence, cannot help but traffic in concepts. So, the question is whether and how existentialism can deploy concepts that are different from everyday and essentialist kind. This chapter will explore the possibility of ‘existential concepts’ found in Heidegger’s notion of formal indication. A treatment of what Heidegger means by formal indication will be followed by a detailed analysis of the concept of care in Being and Time.
