Curriculum Vitae

John J. Preston
Ph.D. Candidate

Contact Information

Address:
100 E Second Street
Unit 403
Cedar Falls, IA. 50613

Phone: 319-240-2834
Email: johnpreston07@gmail.com

Education

University of South Florida
Ph.D. Philosophy

University of New Mexico
M.A. Philosophy

University of Northern Iowa
B.A. Philosophy

PH.D. Dissertation

Title: “Heidegger and the Origin of Authenticity”
Chair: Lee Braver
Internal Committee: Alex Levine, Mor Segev
Committee: Iain Thomson (University of New Mexico)

Since the publication of Sein und Zeit in 1927, scholars have coupled Martin Heidegger’s reflections on authenticity with a rich tradition of thought which reminds us that philosophy can, from time to time, function as a catalyst for self-discovery. While this function is an undeniable feature of Heideggerian authenticity, I would like to suggest that it is secondary to the role that authenticity plays in Heidegger’s philosophical investigations. By analyzing the full phenomena of authenticity and tracing its first technical uses back to Heidegger’s early lectures on Aristotle, I show that Heidegger’s methodological breakthrough in the early 1920s, the development of hermeneutic phenomenology, and the very structure of Being and Time are the result of Heidegger’s appropriation of Aristotle’s philosophical method outlined in his Physics and Nicomachean Ethics. By analyzing these lectures and traditionally ignored uses of authenticity in Being and Time, I develop an account of the methodological sense of authenticity. In comparing this methodological reading to some standard readings, what I call the existential, intentional, and practical readings of authenticity, I show that the problems which arise in these accounts can be addressed by considering the full phenomena of authenticity and its methodological role in Heidegger’s thinking.

M.A. Thesis

Title: “Expanding Ontological Horizons”
Chair: Iain Thomson
Internal Committee: Ann Murphy, Brent Kalar

In “Expanding Ontological Horizons,” I show that Edgar Boedeker provides the means for settling a debate between Hubert Dreyfus and Frederick Olafson concerning the nature of das Man and authenticity in Martin Heidegger's magnum opus, Sein und Zeit. By offering an illustrative account of the structure of Dasein's being which makes use of three major existential horizons, Boedeker is able to make sense of the complicated ways in which Heidegger relates existentials (parts of Dasein's ontological structure) to existentiells (modes of existence). In his haste to solve one problem, however, Boedeker's account creates another. Namely, Boedeker fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between ready-to-hand (Zuhanden) and present-at-hand (Vorhanden) by attributing authenticity to the former, and inauthenticity to the latter. I explain why Boedeker's view is untenable by showing that it is based on failure to distinguish the difference between environment (Umwelt) and worldhood (Weltlichkeit). I then offer an amended picture of Dasein's ontological structure which shows how present-at-hand and ready-to-hand entities each have their own authentic and inauthentic modes. Lastly I show that “worldhood” is the existential horizon of all worldly entities.

Teaching Experience

Awards

The Heidegger Circle

Service

Publications

Full Articles

John J. Preston, “Heidegger’s Endoxic Method: Finding Authenticity in Aristotle,” Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual 11 (July 27, 2021): 102–35, https://doi.org/10.5840/gatherings2021118.

Book Reviews

John J. Preston, “Richard Polt: Time and Trauma: Thinking Through Heidegger in the Thirties,” Human Studies 44, no. 4 (2021): 821–27.

John J. Preston, “Robert C. Scharff’s Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological: Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916–1925,” Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual 10 (July 1, 2020): 262–66, https://doi.org/10.5840/gatherings20201013.

Presentations