McNeill (2006:xi) – êthos

The present study [The Time of Life] seeks to explore Heidegger’s understanding of êthos   — of the originary dimension of the ethical and of human action — conceived in terms of the time of life and the temporality of human existence. Êthos for Heidegger means our dwelling, understood temporally as a way of Being, yet such dwelling must be understood, on the one hand  , in terms of our stance and conduct in the moment of action — the way in which we are held   and hold ourselves, and thus "dwell," in the presence of the moment — and on the other hand, in terms of our more enduring way of Being that is brought about temporally in and throughout the unfolding of human experience. The essays that comprise this volume examine various dimensions of this tension between the moment of presence and the temporalizing of that moment as brought about and attuned by the antecedent claims of a greater whole. (p. xi)