fundamental ontology

The article considers one of Heidegger’s statements presented in a letter to his friend K. Lowit dated August 19, 1921, in which he defines himself as a “Christian theologian”. The main existing perspectives on Heidegger’s “religiosity” being listed, the question arises, can we, and if so, in which sense, call Heidegger a “faithful Christian”? To answer this question, one needs to distinguish between “ontic theology” and “onto-theology”, the latter concept being very close to Heidegger’s own project of “fundamental ontology”.

The article is devoted to the question of being in Heidegger’s fundamental ontology, namely, his claim to understand the ancient idea of being. In his work “Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning)”, Heidegger distinguishes between the understanding of being as the being of everything that exists and his own understanding of being as such, out of connection with things. He calls the first point the “leading question” and attributes its authorship to Aristotle, the second one – “the main question”.