from out of which all explicit questions concerning Being should be able to grow. The Metaphysics of Dasein, guided by the question of ground-laying, should unveil the constitution of the Being of [Dasein] in such a way that this becomes visible as the inner making-possible of the understanding of Being.
The unveiling of the constitution of the Being of Dasein is Ontology Insofar as the ground for the possibility of metaphysics is found therein—the finitude of Dasein as its fundament—it is called Fundamental Ontology locked up in the content of this title is the problem of finitude in human beings, which is decisive for purposes of making the understanding of Being possible.
Fundamental Ontology, however, is only the first level of the Metaphysics of Dasein. What belongs to this [Metaphysics of Dasein] as a whole, and how from time to time it is rooted historically in factical Dasein cannot be discussed here. Now the only task is to clarify the idea of Fundamental Ontology which guided the above interpretation of the Critique of Pure Reason. Furthermore, the characterization of Fundamental Ontology should be given only in its distinctive features, in order to show once more the simple sequence of steps by which a previous attempt at the carrying-through of this idea moved.292
The constitution of the Being of every being, and that of Dasein in a special sense, only becomes accessible to the understanding insofar as it [the understanding] has the character of projection [Entwurf]. Because the understanding—and Fundamental Ontology shows us precisely this—is not just a type of knowing, but on the contrary is primarily a basic moment of existing in general, then the explicit execution of the projecting, and even what is grasped in the ontological, must necessarily be construction.
But construction here does not mean: free-floating thinking-out of something. It is instead a projecting in which the preliminary guidance as well as the taking-off of the projection [der Absprung des Entwurfs] must be predetermined and protected. Dasein should be construed in its finitude, namely, with a view toward the intrinsic making-possible of the understanding of Being. Any fundamental-ontological construction asserts its truth in what its projection allows to be seen, i.e., in how it brings Dasein to its manifestness and lets its inner metaphysics be-there [da-sein].
The fundamental-ontological construction is distinguished by the fact that it should expose the inner possibility of something which, preCisely as what is best known, thoroughly masters all Dasein, but which, nevertheless, is indeterminate and even much too self-evident. This construction can be understood as Daseins assault upon the primal metaphysical factum in it, an assault which arises from within Dasein itself. This factum consists in the fact that what is most finite in its finitude is indeed known, but nevertheless has not been grasped.
The finitude of Dasein—the understanding of Being—lies in forgetfulness.[14]
292. See Being and Time.