 "Always already" literally translates the German phrase "immer schon" that appears prominently in several 20th century philosophical works, notably Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time".The phrase is not specific to philosophy in German, but refers to an action or condition that has continued without any identifiable beginning.Heidegger used the phrase routinely to indicate that Dasein, the human experience of existence, has no beginning apart from the world in which one exists, but is produced in it and by it.