THE CONCEPT OF TIME
The following reflections are concerned with time. What is time?
a given line segment fits into the whole, measured line, that is to say, it puts at one's disposal the measured line in its full presence [Anwesenheit]. Hence the key point in measuring time [Zeitmessung] is recourse to something that is available as present [Anwesendes] in every Now and which as such allows us to determine every Now.(1) Using the clock signifies: to be in the world in the mode of presencing [gegenwärtigend in der Welt sein](2).
The use of chronometers for scientific purposes(3) only confirms the ontological character of the mode of conduct inherent to utilizing clocks. The pursuit of knowledge in physics [Erkennen in der Physik] is that kind of being-in-the-world that accomplishes [besorgt] the opening up of the world in accordance with its constant and regular presence [Vorhandensein] and makes the discovered world accessible in scientific findings.(4) This pursuit of knowledge [Erkennen] is the project of presencing the world as mere nature [blosser Natur], a project that has taken on this task as its own, and which has thus become an autonomous way of being-in (science) [als eine Weise des Inseins (Wissenschaft) eigenständig geworden ist].
Whether the clock allows us to tell the time with precision or provides only an approximation makes no essential difference to the ontological characteristics of that being-in to which it owes its 'invention' and further development. The clock exists(5) because the being-in that identifies the now encounters 'time' in a worldly manner. 'Time' exists because Dasein is constituted through Dasein's facticity [Fakticität] as presencing immersion in the world, in other words as care [als Sorgen].
[74] 'Time' exists; we meet it in our worldly interaction with the clock. For something to be 'in time' means that we encounter its occurrence
(1) can be read off!
(2) measuring!
(3) Theoretical assertions in the course of discovering nature.
Uprooting nature from the world
(4) more to the point
bias towards invariant constants and corresponding development of metrics -
in order to reveal the world [Freigabe der Welt].
Uprooting nature [Entwurzelung der Natur]
= dissolution of enrootedness [= Ablösung der Verwurzelung]
and obscuration through the everyday immersed being-in [nächst aufgehende Insein].
world is concealed through being-in itself.
(5) the clock exists
because it is Dasein
that discovers - and conceals - the world in temporality [im Zeitlichen] -
that is, time is inherent in discovering, in other words in presencing [im gegenwärtigen].
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