1. General

The German term Dasein refers to the reality of things (Lat. existentia, which C. Wolff translated into German as Dasein, lit. “being there”) in contradistinction to their essence (Ger. Sosein, “being so”) and to the actuality of facts (i.e. that such-and-such is the case).

In early Greek philosophy and also in Plato, Dasein does not receive much attention as an independent topic, there being more interest in determining the what and the how of things. Although Ari…