ABSTRACT
This first chapter offers reflections on Dasein as a reading of history. In particular, it contends that individual opportunities for striving to satisfy inner validity were limited by the asymmetry of the colonial world. The bearing of this in the pre-imposed limitations of thrownness, the opportunities for unconcealment, the received wisdom attached to idle talk and the dominance of colonial representations of certainty and constancy are explored. The chapter also proposes that Heidegger’s idea of doubt embedded in a representation and Nietzsche’s invalid policy proclaimed moral are conformable ideas. This chapter samples Nietzschean history as an indifference to ‘sides’ by highlighting the devil’s advocacy in the work of John Hunter Boyle on collaboration governments in China under the Japanese. The eternal return of colonial trauma (Nietzsche) and Christianity summoning the cultural power to prevail (Heidegger) are introduced as signature ideas in the book. An overview of each chapter in the book is also given.
