I.iv The Ontical Priority of the Question of Being

"Dasein is an entity which does not just occur among other entities. Rather it is ontically distinguished by the fact taht, in its very Being, that Being is an issue for it."

"Understanding of Being is itself a definite characteristic of Dasein's Being. Dasein is ontically distinctive in that it is ontological." (Heidegger, p. 32)

The fact that Being is a question for Dasein as an entity and from Dasein as an entity underlines the condition of the question of Being as foremost in understanding the question of Being.

"Dasein always understands itself in terms of its existence-in terms of a possbility of itself: to be itself or not itself.

Sciences are ways of Being in which Dasein comports itself towards entities which it need not be itself. But to Dasein, Being in a world is something that belongs essentially. Thus Dasein's understanding of Being pertains with equal primordiality both to an understanding of something like a 'world', and to the understanding of the Being of those entities which become accessible within the world.

Reaons for Dasein's priority:

1. ontical: Dasein is an entity whose Being has teh determinate character of existence.
   
2. ontological: Dasein is in itself 'ontological, because existence is thus determinative for it.
   
3. ontico-ontological: Dasein also possesses-as constitutive for its understanding of existence-an understanding of the Being of all entities of a character other than its own.
   

"Thus Dasein has turned out to be, more than any other entity, the one which must first be interrogated ontologically." (p 34)

The roots of the 'existential analytic' is existentiell (ontical) and must be worked out in an 'ontologically adequate manner' in order to become transparent.

If to Interpret the meaning of Being becomes our task, Dasein is not only the primary entity to be interrogated; it is also that entity which already comports itself, in its Being, towards what we are asking about when we ask this question. but in that case the question of Being is nothing other than the radicalization of an essential tendency-of-Being which belongs to Dasein itself-the pre-ontological understanding of Being.