Third Long Answer

3. explain the role that the concept of the future plays in the worlk of any three of the philosophers studied this term.

answers:
[andrew]

For Heidegger, the role of the future is inseparable from the present and the past.  Our present actions are in reference to the future.  For example, right now we are studying not for the sake of studying, but for the sake of doing well on the exam (in the future).   The past is also tied to the present and future in that who I am right now is a culmination of all the things I have done in the past and who I am now is also reflective of where I will be in the future.

For Sartre, the future is completely open and free to us, and this freedom and possibility causes our anxiety.  In the absence of God, we are free and responsible to make ourselves and we have no set future.  We make our own future.  This responsibility instills in us anxiety.

Kierkegaard's relation to the future is essentially the same as Sartre's.  We are anxious about our futures and responsible for our relationship with God.