In this essay, I take up the ideas of Heidegger on his question of being, going to the understanding of Dasein- which leads us to the understanding that man is the most tangible Dasein, a project as an already being but not yet. Man as the only being who is concerned of his own existence asks basically the question of existence juxtaposing with the question of being. However, the real challenge to address being or in knowing being is to simply to qualify the art of questioning of being. Heidegger did not say that the ancient and modern philosophers were wrong about their notion of being, rather Heidegger just tried to deconstruct and approach the question of being in his own way. In this connection, to revisit how the ancient and modern defined being is necessary.
Since time immemorial, the question of being had been addressed painstakingly. Before Martin Heidegger began to put concern on the question of being, ancient philosophers would give us a definition of being as a thing which basically answers the question what is a thing? Pre-Heideggerian ontology asked what kinds of things exist?•The fundamental question asked by metaphysics is this:•Does such a thing actually exist?•Does God exists?Does freedom exist? For instance, Aristotle said that whatever exists is a fundamental kind of thing there is First Being- or derived characteristic or predicate that depends on a primary existent like a First Being. Let us take for example, “The horse is white”- the “horse” is the first being while “white” is the predicate. In modern philosophy, Descartes did not only asks whether such a thing as material substance exists, he actually tells us what it means for such a thing to exist. For him, if it takes up a space it is a material thing, then it exist.
Heidegger argues that there is more fundamental question than those questions asked above. What does it mean to exist at all? What does it mean to be? Basically, the meaning of existence is the most fundamental question of being. Like for example, in this K12 transition program of the basic education, the question often if not always asked is what is a k12 student? But, for Heidegger, the most fundamental question which encompasses the question “what is a k12 student?” Is “What does it mean to be a K12 student?” In this manner, one rips a more fundamental and meaningful answers.
For Heidegger, the question of the meaning of being is the most primordial question- What does it mean to exist? This question confronts man while he is still becoming to his finality. For Heidegger man, as a Dasein, is a being already but not yet. Man reaches his fulfilment in death. Thus, what it means to be? Is how man is making the best of his existence, basically finding meaning, before his death comes, which all we have are presumptions of the unknown. Man, then again, who is concerned of his existence legitimate his claim of concern in finding meaning of his life, his existence.