Sign and reality: Heidegger’s approach to signs in Being and Time

Abstract

In this paper, I will critically assess a very popular interpretation of Heidegger’s early thought, according to which meaning (Bedeutung) is conceived as ontologically dependent on human existence (Dasein). To criticize this subjectivist understanding of meaning, I will offer an interpretation of Heidegger’s analysis of signs in Being and Time (§17). This will reveal two main things: first, that the ubiquity of sign phenomena is founded on the universality of the structure known as reference (Verweisung); second, that Heidegger’s idea of reference offers a non-substantialist understanding of meaning and its relation to the world.