When, however, we come to the question of man's Being, this is not something we can simply compute1 by adding together those kinds of Being which body, soul, and spirit respectively possess—kinds of Being whose nature has not as yet been determined. And even if we should attempt such an ontological procedure, some idea of the Being of the whole must be presupposed. But what stands in the way of the basic question of Dasein's Being (or leads it off the track) is an orientation thoroughly coloured by the anthropology of Christianity and the ancient world, whose inadequate ontological foundations have been overlooked both by the philosophy of life and by personalism. There are two important elements in this traditional anthropology:
1. 'Man' is here defined as a ζῷον λόγον ἔχον, and this is Interpreted to mean an animal rationale, something living which has reason. But the kind of Being which belongs to a ζῷον is understood in the sense of occurring and Being-present-at-hand. The λόγος is some superior endowment; the kind of Being which belongs to it, however, remains quite as obscure as that of the entire entity thus compounded.
2. The second clue for determining the nature of man's Being and essence is a theological one καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός. ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾽ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ κατ᾽ ὁμοίόσιν—"faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram et similitudinem"vii With this as its point of departure, [49] the anthropology of Christian theology, taking with it the ancient definition, arrives at an interpretation of that entity which we call "man". But just as the Being of God gets Interpreted ontologically by means of the ancient ontology, so does the Being of the ens finitum, and to an even greater extent. In modern times the Christian definition has been deprived of its theological character. But the idea of 'transcendence'—that man is something that reaches beyond himself-is rooted in Christian dogmatics, which can hardly be said to have made an ontological problem of man's Being. The idea of transcendence, according to which man is more than a mere something endowed with intelligence, has worked itself out with different variations. The following quotations will illustrate how these have originated: 'His praeclaris dotibus excelluit prima hominis conditio, ut ratio, intelligentia, prudentia, judicium non modo ad terrenae vitae gubernationem suppeterent, sed quibus transcenderet usque ad Deum et aeternam felicitatem.'viii 'Denn dass der mensch sin ufsehen hat uf Gott und sin wort, zeigt er klarlich an, dass er nach siner natur etwas Gott näher anerborn, etwas mee nachschlägt, etwas zuzugs zu im hat, das alles on zwyfel darus flüsst, dass er nach dem bildnus Gottes geschaffen ist'.ix
1 Reading 'errechnet'. The earliest editions have 'verrechnet', with the correct reading provided in a list of errata.