Introduction




The Theme and Structure of the Investigation


The following investigation is devoted to the task of interpreting Kant's Critique of Pure Reason as a laying of the ground for metaphysics and thus of placing the problem of metaphysics before us as a fundamental ontology.

Fundamental Ontology means that ontological analytic of the finite essence of human beings which is to prepare the foundation for the metaphysics which "belongs to human nature." Fundamental Ontology is the metaphysics of human Dasein which is required for metaphysics to be made possible. It remains fundamentally different from all anthropology and from the philosophical. The idea of laying out a fundamental ontology means to disclose the characteristic ontological analytic of Dasein as prerequisite and thus to make clear for what purpose and in what way, within which boundaries and with which presuppositions, it puts the concrete question: What is the human being? However, provided that an idea first manifests itself through its power to illuminate, the idea of fundamental ontology will prove itself and present itself in an interpretation of the Critique of Pure Reason as a laying of the ground for metaphysics.

To this end, the general meaning of the term "laying the ground" [Grundlegung] must first be clarified. The expression's meaning is best illustrated if we consider the building trade. It is true that metaphysics is not a building or structure [Gebäude] that is at hand, but is really in all human beings "as a natural construction or arrangement."1 As a consequence, laying the ground



1. Critique of Pure Reason, 2d ed., p. 21. The first edition (A) and the second (B) are juxtaposed


1


Martin Heidegger (GA 3) Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics

GA 3