Mayr & Askay: Existence – Ek-sistence

For Heidegger, existence does not refer to the traditional, metaphysically understood existentia (present-at-handness of something). It refers exclusively to the human being’s existence as Ek-sistence (the human being’s “standing out” into the truth of being, i.e., as the “lighting” or “clearing’’ of being [Lichtung des Seins]). In contrast to any misunderstanding of the human being as a self-contained “subject” vis-a-vis “objects,” Ek-sistence literally means standing outside oneself into the open region of being in which beings can come to presence (the human being as “being-in-the-world,” “Da-sein").