Sinn

"Meaning" signifies the "upon-which" [das Woraufhin] of a primary projection in terms of which something can be conceived in its possibility as that which it is. Projecting discloses possibilities — that is to say, it discloses the sort of thing that makes possible.

To lay bare the "upon-which" of a projection, amounts to disclosing that which makes possible what has been projected. 1 To lay it bare in this way requires methodologically that we study the projection (usually a tacit one) which underlies an interpretation, and that we do so in such a way that what has been projected in the projecting can be disclosed and grasped with regard to its "upon-which". To set forth the meaning of care means, then, to follow up the projection which guides and underlies the primordial existential Interpretation of Dasein, and to follow it up in such a way that in what is here projected, its "upon-which" may be seen. What has been projected is the Being of Dasein, and it is disclosed in what constitutes that Being as an authentic potentiality-for-Being-a-whole. 2 That upon which the Being which has been disclosed and is thus constituted has been projected, is that which itself makes possible this Constitution of Being as care. When we inquire about the meaning of care, we are asking what makes possible the totality of the articulated structural whole of care, in the unity of its articulation as we have unfolded it.

Taken strictly, "meaning" signifies the "upon-which" of the primary projection of the understanding of Being. When Being-in-the-world has been disclosed to itself and understands the Being of that entity which it itself is, it understands equiprimordially the Being of entities discovered within-the-world, even if such Being has not been made a theme, and has not yet even been differentiated into its primary modes of existence and Reality. All ontical experience of entities — both circumspective calculation of the ready-to-hand, and positive scientific cognition of the presentat-hand — is based upon projections of the Being of the corresponding entities — projections which in every case are more or less transparent. But in these projections there lies hidden the "upon-which", of the projection; and on this, as it were, the understanding of Being nourishes itself.
If we say that entities 'have meaning', this signifies that they have become accessible in their Being; and this Being, as projected upon its "upon-which", is what 'really' 'has meaning' first of all. Entities 'have' meaning only because, as Being which has been disclosed beforehand, they become intelligible in the projection of that Being—that is to say, in terms of the "upon-which" of that projection. The primary projection of the understanding of Being 'gives' the meaning. The question about the meaning of the Being of an entity takes as its theme the "uponwhich" of that understanding of Being which underlies all Being of entities."

Heidegger, 1962, pág. 371