251 II.I

Being and Time

However, Dasein relates to something possible in its possibility, by expecting [Erwarten] it. Anyone who is intent on something possible, may encounter it unimpeded and undiminished in its "whether [262] it comes or not, or whether it comes after all." But with this phenomenon of expecting has our analysis not reached the same kind of being toward the possible which we already characterized as being out for something and taking care of it? To expect something possible is always to understand and "have" it with regard to whether and when and how it will really be objectively present. Expecting is not only an occasional looking away from the possible to its possible actualization, but essentially a waiting for that actualization. Even in expecting, one leaps away from the possible and gets a footing in the real. It is for its reality that what is expected is expected. By the very nature of expecting, the possible is drawn into the real, arising from it and returning to it.

But being toward this possibility, as being-toward-death, should relate itself to death so that it reveals itself, in this being [Sein] and for it, as possibility. Terminologically, we shall formulate this being toward possibility as anticipation [Vorlaufen] of this possibility. But does not this mode of behavior contain an approach [Näherung] to the possible, and does not its actualization emerge with the nearness [Nähe] of the possible? In this kind of coming near, however, one does not tend toward making something real available and taking care of it, but as one comes nearer understandingly, the possibility of the possible only becomes "greater." The nearest nearness of being-toward-death as possibility is as far removed as possible from anything real. The more clearly this possibility is understood, the more purely does understanding penetrate to it as the possibility of the impossibility of existence [Existenz]

in general.

As possibility, death gives Dasein nothing to "be a􀂦alized" and nothing which it itself could be as something real. It is the possibility of the impossibility of every mode of behavior toward ... , of every way of existing. In anticipating this possibility, it becomes "greater and greater"; that is, it reveals itself as something which knows no measure at all, no more or less, but means the possibility of the measureless impossibility of existence. Essentially, this possibility offers no support for becoming intent on something, for "picturing" for oneself the actuality that is possible and so forgetting its possibility. As anticipation of possibility, being-toward-death first makes this possibility possible and sets it free as possibility.

Being-toward-death is the anticipation of a potentiality-of-being of that being whose kind of being is anticipation itself. In the anticipatory revealing of this potentiality-of-being, Dasein discloses itself to itself with regard to its most extreme possibility. But to project oneself upon one's ownmost potentiality of being means to be able to understand

Martin Heidegger (GA 2) Being & Time (S&S)