fundamental ontology

is not contemplative but as an engagement of human beings in the world. I is the anthropological preparation for the question of being.

Ontology is not, as it was for Aristotle, a contemplative theoretical endeavour, but is, according to Heidegger, grounded in a fundamental ontology of the existential engagement of human beings in the world, which forms the anthropological preparation for the question of Being. (Crtichley et al. 2004 : 9)

is ontology (Heidegger’s own ontology) which is obliged to interpret Dasein in terms of temporality

Heidegger describes his own method of philosophy, at this stage, as fundamental ontology. And fundamental ontology, he says, is obliged to interpret Dasein in terms of temporality; otherwise, we are back in Husserl’s model of the presence of things in consciousness, if not something even worse.

is to be pursued through analysis of Dasein because while other beings subsist, human beings ‘lead their lives.’

Mulhall, who tends to pursue this way of characterizing Dasein, develops the idea by explaining that while inanimate objects merely persist through time and while plants and non-human animals have their lives determined entirely by the demands of survival and reproduction, human beings lead their lives (Mulhall 2005, 15).

is only able of being carried out by an analysis of Dasein, since it is only humans who are able to encounter the question of what it means to be.

So how do we carry out fundamental ontology, and thus answer the question of the meaning of Being? It is here that Heidegger introduces the notion of Dasein (Da-sein: there-being). One proposal for how to think about the term ‘Dasein’ is that it is Heidegger's label for the distinctive mode of Being realized by human beings (for this reading, see e.g., Brandom 2002, 325).

is concerned with the a priori, transcendental conditions that make possible particular modes of Being (i.e., particular regional ontologies).

The second distinction between different kinds of inquiry, drawn within the category of the ontological, is between regional ontology and fundamental ontology, where the former is concerned with the ontologies of particular domains, say biology or banking, and the latter is concerned with the a priori, transcendental conditions that make possible particular modes of Being (i.e., particular regional ontologies). For Heidegger, the ontical presupposes the regional-ontological, which in turn presupposes the fundamental-ontological.

is to be pursued through a study of Dasein because, since Dasein operates with a preontological understanding of being in its everyday modes, an investigation into those everyday modes offers a first step towards revealing a shared but hidden underlying meaning of Being.

This suggests that a disciplined investigation of those everyday modes of engagement on the part of Dasein (what Heidegger calls an “existential analytic of Dasein”) will be a first step towards revealing a shared but hidden underlying meaning of Being.

fundamental ontology, n.All

fundamental ontology