PATHMARKS
to result by way of (67) an "abstraction." The essence of ground is the transcendental springing forth of grounding, strewn threefold into projection of world, absorption within beings, and ontological grounding of beings.
And it is for this reason alone that even the earliest questioning concerning the essence of ground shows itself to be entwined with the task of shedding light upon the essence of being and truth.
Yet may we not still inquire as to why these three determinative components of transcendence that belong together may be designated by the same term "grounding"? Is it simply a matter of a contrived similarity based on wordplay? Or are the three ways of grounding after all identical in one respect, although in a different way in each case? We must indeed respond in the affirmative to this question. At the "level" of our present appraisal, however, we cannot undertake to illuminate the meaning of that particular respect in which these three inseparable ways of grounding correspond to one another in a unitary and yet strewn manner. By way of indication it must suffice to point out that establishing, taking up a basis, and legitimation each in their own way spring forth from a care for steadfastness and subsistence, a care that in turn is itself possible only as temporality.a
Deliberately turning away from this domain of the problem, and instead looking back to the point of departure of our investigation, we shall now discuss briefly whether anything, and if so, what, has been attained with regard to the problem of the "principle of reason" through our attempt at shedding light upon the "essence" of ground. The principle means: every being has its reason [ground]. The exposition we have given first of all illuminates why this is so. Because being, as understood in advance, "intrinsically" grounds things in an originary manner, every being as a being in its own way announces "grounds," whether these are specifically grasped and determined in an appropriate way or not. Because "ground" is a transcendental characteristic of the essence of being in general, the principle of reason [ground] is valid for beings. Ground, however, belongs to the essence of being because being (not beings) [68] is given only in transcendence as a grounding that finds itself in a projecting of world.
Furthermore, it has become clear with respect to the principle of reason [ground] that the "birthplace" of this principle lies neither in the essence of proposition nor in propositional truth, but in ontological truth, i.e., in transcendence itself. Freedom is the origin of the principle of reason [ground]; for in freedom, in the unity of excess and withdrawal, the grounding of things that develops and forms itself as ontological truth is grounded.
a First edition, 1929: And the latter in time as; Temporality [Temporalität].
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