If an existential analytic of fear reveals a Dasein in which fear can be rationally grounded, then it must also reveal a Dasein which not only recognizes futural possibilities, but past having been possibilities. Fear as a mood only is possible if there is past experiences in which the present experience is grounded and made possible. If there was no having been or grounding in the past, the mood of fear would be impossible. Moreover, if there was no past experience of fear, there would be no reason to fear in the present. There would be no reason to fear if fear had never first been experienced in a having been. The very mood of fear, as Heidegger rightly concludes, reveals an orientation toward future possibilities, but just as importantly also reveals a primordial foundation of those possibilities that is grounded in a having been.

¶ 6:26 AM