THE CONCEPT OF TIME
The following reflections are concerned with time. What is time?
sense of its being is already inherent in the interpretative discussion of the surrounding world. Above we explicated concerned immersion as expectant presencing. The being-in of Dasein allows a concernful encounter with the world in the present [Gegenwart]. The world that one deals with is interpreted as presence [Anwesenheit]. Hence that which is always present, always encountered, is genuine presence [eigentliche Anwesenheit] - is what exists as such [das Seiende schlechthin] - the heavens.(1) But to the extent that Dasein ordinarily understands its own [101] being-in via the things it is concerned with, the things it deals with, this also informs the principal sense of being in the interpretation of the being of Dasein itself. It is through dealing with the world that it is opened-up. Hence, human Dasein's highest mode of being is that which allows it to encounter what genuinely exists [das eigentlich Seiende] in its unconcealed state (ἀ-λήθεια). The ἀληθεύειν which enables entities to be present purely as they are in themselves is the θεωρεῖν, the being-in-the-world of the βίος θεωρητικός; hence the researcher's existence [Existenz] is διαγωγή - pure presencing abiding [rein gegen wärtigen des Verweilen].
On this view, one reads the meaning of being off what exists [Seiendem] as the environing world of ordinary concerns.(2) The fact that the world encountered in this way is also 'nature' is not crucial to the original meaning of this concept of being. The meaning of being is thus interpreted from the perspective of time. Presencing, which prefigures the approach to what exists (the world) in Greek ontology, articulates itself temporally as it addresses the entities it encounters. The ontology of the world is itself always a way of Dasein's being [Seinsweise] (a style of going about things [Umgangsart]) relative to the world in which this Dasein exists. As long as this is so, when it comes to its opportunities to uncover, open-up and interpret the world, ontology will continue to be determined by Dasein's being, which we have identified as temporalness.
To the extent that time itself exists, however, it is interpreted in light of the dominant concept of being. For Aristotle, who was the first to interpret time, being means that which is [Anwesenheit] (the present time
(1) what is there in its presence (κίνησις) -
already there
(2) and even 'spirit' ['Geist'] θεωρεῖν itself in turn by reference to this time as constant presencing! not analysable as an ontology of nature [Natur Ontologie] in order to attempt, in opposition to it, an ontology of spirit [Geist] or consciousness - the same neglect persists as long as Dasein is not really seen for what it truly is.
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