Abstract

The question of Being has an ontological and an ontical priority. The ontological priority is given its due in the fundamental ontology that as metaphysics of metaphysics investigates the Temporality of Being in order to lay a foundation for the regional ontologies and the sciences. The ontical priority is given its due in an analysis that investigates the constitution of Being of the being that the fundamental ontology itself is. Heidegger comes to realize in the elaboration of Being and Time that the question of Being is of the character of Dasein and therefore temporalizes itself in a way that does not correspond to the temporality needed for a transcendental philosophy that seeks to objectify Being as such. Heidegger's attention to the question of Being as question, to the question as being , hits upon the apriori as difference. Being as apriori cannot be conceived of as a horizontal project that Dasein temporalizes, but must be understood as the not to be presented absolute past that has always already called on Dasein's concern. In the same way transcendence can no longer be understood as the ecstatic movement that pulls Dasein forth, but must be thought as the appropriating event that holds itself back and remains forever in the coming. A philosophy of Being can no longer be worked out as a fundamental ontology, but it becomes the task of a thinking experience . Thinking experiences Being as a promise that is given as a secret to a silent, yet speaking commemoration. This experience commits Dasein to what will never have been present. This experience cannot be equated with the Hegelian experience of the Spirit that arrogates the absolute to itself. It profoundly deconstructs the mathematically closed circle of fundamental ontology and of hermeneutics. The transcendental question hits upon the facticity of itself and experiences that it is materially inscribed in the event of transcendence befalling Dasein. Heidegger's thinking does not turn back upon itself in self-reflection, but finds itself expropriated by an event that, coming from elsewhere, binds itself to thinking. Thinking experiences itself as given : the unmeasurable event that always and again there is thinking knows itself to be inscribed in and as the trace of what has passed as the never to be actualised and abides in the difference of an unassailable nearness