321 II. 2
Being and Time

rather 'it' does the calling, does not justify seeking the caller in some entity with a character other than that of Dasein. Yet every Dasein always exists factically. It is not a free-floating self-projection; but its character is determined by thrownness as a Fact of the entity which it is; and, as so determined, it has in each case already been delivered over to existence, and it constantly so remains. Dasein's facticity, however, is essentially distinct from the factuality of something present-at-hand. Existent Dasein does not encounter itself as something present-at-hand within-the-world. But neither does thrownness adhere to Dasein as an inaccessible characteristic which is of no importance for its existence. As something thrown, Dasein has been thrown into existence. It exists as an entity which has to be as it is and as it can be.

That it is factically, may be obscure and hidden as regards the "why" of it; but the "that-it-is" has itself been disclosed to Dasein.1 The thrownness of this entity belongs to the disclosedness of the 'there' and reveals itself constantly in its current state-of-mind. This state-of-mind brings Dasein, more or less explicitly and authentically, face to face with the fact 'that it is, and that it has to be something with a potentiality-forBeing as the entity which it is'.2 For the most part, however, its mood is such that its thrownness gets closed off. In the face of its thrownness Dasein flees to the relief which comes with the supposed freedom of the they-self. This fleeing has been described as a fleeing in the face of the uncanniness which is basically determinative for individualized Being-in-the-world. Uncanniness reveals itself authentically in the basic state-of-mind of anxiety; and, as the most elemental way in which thrown Dasein is disclosed, it puts Dasein's Being-in-the-world face to face with the "nothing" of the world; in the face of this "nothing", Dasein is anxious with anxiety about its ownmost potentiality-for-Being. What if this Dasein, which finds itself [sich befindet] in the very depths of its uncanniness, should be the caller of the call of conscience?

Nothing speaks against this; but all those phenomena which we have hitherto set forth in characterizing the caller and its calling speak for it.

In its "who", the caller is definable in a 'worldly' way by nothing at all. The caller is Dasein in its uncanniness: primordial, thrown Being-in-the-world as the "not-at-home"—the bare 'that-it-is' in the "nothing" of the [277] world. The caller is unfamiliar to the everyday they-self; it is something like an alien voice. What could be more alien to the "they", lost in the


1 'Dass es faktisch ist, mag hinsichtlich des Warum verborgen sein, das 'Dass' selbst jedoch ist dem Dasein erschlossen.' (Cf. H. 135 above.)

2 'Diese bringt das Dasein mehr oder minder ausdrücklich und eigentlich vor sein "dass es ist und a1s das Seiende, das es ist, seinkönnend zu sein hat".'


Being and Time (M&R) by Martin Heidegger