Seventh lecture for my students in English 165EW, "Life After the End of the World," winter 2013 at UC Santa Barbara. Course website: http://patrickbrianmooney.nfshost.com/~patrick/ta/w13/

1. Lecture 7:
The Wor(l)dliness
of the World
English 165EW
Winter 2013
30 January 2013
William Blake, The Great Red
Dragon and the Woman Clothed in
Sun (ca. 1808)

2. The World: A Phenomenological
Perspective
“Equipment can genuinely show itself only in dealings
cut to its own measure (hammering with a hammer,
for example); but in such dealings an entity of this kind
is not grasped thematically as an occurring Thing, nor
is the equipment-structure known as such even in the
using. […] In dealings such as this, where something
is put to use, our concern subordinates itself to the ‘in-
order-to’ which is constitutive for the equipment we
are employing at the time; the less we just stare at the
hammer-Thing, and the more we seize hold of it and
use it, […] the more unveiledly is it encountered as
that which it is—as equipment.” (Martin Heidegger,
Being and Time [1929], tr. Macquarrie and Robinson,
98 / 69)

3. “The hammering itself uncovers the specific
‘manipulability’ of the hammer. The kind of Being
which equipment possesses—in which it manifests
itself in its own right—we call ‘readiness-to-hand’.
[…] No matter how sharply we just look at the
‘outward appearance’ of Things in whatever form
this takes, we cannot discover anything ready-to-
hand. If we look at Things just ‘theoretically’, we
can get along without understanding readiness-to-
hand. But when we deal with them by using them
and manipulating them, this activity is not a blind
one; it has its own kind of sight, by which our
manipulation is guided […]. Dealings with
equipment subordinate themselves to the manifold
assignments of the ‘in-order-to.” (98 / 69)

4. “If Being-in-the-world is a basic state of Dasein,
and one in which Dasein operates not only in
general but pre-eminently in the mode of
everydayness, then it must also be something
which has always been experienced ontically.
[…] But no sooner was the ‘phenomenon of
knowing the world’ grasped than it got
interpreted in a ‘superficial’, formal manner. The
evidence for this is the procedure (still
customary today) of setting up knowing as a
‘relation between subject and object’—a
procedure in which there lurks as much ‘truth’
as vacuity. But subject and Object do not
coincide with Dasein and the world.” (87 / 60)

5. “Being-in-the-world, according to our
Interpretation hitherto, amounts to a non-
thematic circumspective absorption in
references or assignments constitutive for the
readiness-to-hand of a totality of equipment.
Any concern is already as it is, because of
some familiarity with the world. In this familiarity
Dasein can lose itself in what it encounters
within-the-world and be fascinated with it. What
is it that Dasein is familiar with? Why can the
worldly character of what is within the world be
lit up?” (107 / 76)

6. “Motor cars are sometimes fitted up with an
adjustable red arrow, whose position indicates the
direction the vehicle will take—at an intersection,
for instance. The position of the arrow is controlled
by the driver. This sign is an item of equipment
which is ready-to-hand for the driver in his concern
with driving, and not for him alone: those who are
not not travelling with him—and they in particular—
also make use of it, either by giving way on the
proper side or by stopping. This sign is ready-to-
hand within-the-world in the whole equipment-
context of vehicles and traffic regulations. It is
equipment for indicating, and as equipment, it is
constituted by reference or assignment. It has the
character of the ‘in-order-to’, its own definite
serviceability; it is for indicating.” (109 / 78)

7. “Signs of the kind we have described let what is
ready-to-hand be encountered; more precisely,
they let some context of it become accessible in
such a way that our concernful dealings take on
an orientation and hold it secure. A sign is not a
Thing which stands to another Thing in the
relationship of indicating; it is rather an item of
equipment which explicitly raises a totality of
equipment into our circumspection so that
together with it the worldly character of the
ready-to-hand announces itself.” (110 / 79;
emphasis in original.)

8. “A sign to mark something indicates what one is
‘at’ at any time. Signs always indicate primarily
‘wherein’ one lives, where one’s concern
dwells, what sort of involvement there is with
something.” (111 / 80)
“The ready-to-hand is encountered within-the-
world. The Being of this entity, readiness-to-
hand, thus stands in some ontological
relationship towards the world and towards
worldhood. In anything ready-to-hand the world
is always ‘there’. Whenever we encounter
anything, the world has already been previously
discovered, though not thematically. But it can
also be lit up in certain ways of dealing with our
environment.” (114 / 83)

9. The Book of Genesis
● The first book in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
● Traditionally, Moses is held to be the author, but …
● 20th- and 21st-century scholarship tends to see it as a compound
work stitched together by an editor (in about the 6th century BCE)
from two to four different original sources.
● Is generally seen as divided into two primary thematic
sections:
● A “primeval history” (chapters 1-11); and
● A cycle of Patriarchal stories (chapters 12-50).
● For both Jews and Christians, emphasis is often seen as
being on the establishment of a series of covenants
between God and humans.

10. The Covenant with Abraham
“[T]he LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am
almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. /
And I will make My covenant between Me and you,
and will multiply you exceedingly.’” (17:1-2)
“No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your
name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father
of many nations.” (17:5)
“This is My covenant which you shall keep, between
Me and you and your descendants after you: Every
male child among you shall be circumcised; […] and
My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting
covenant.” (17:10,13)

11. The destruction of Sodom
● … is generally seen by (most) modern scholars
as motivated by God’s anger at the violation of
the rule of hospitality, despite the way in which
the name has influenced contemporary
vocabulary.
“The men [i.e., the visiting angels] said to Lot …
‘[W]e will destroy this place, because the outcry
against them has grown great before the face of the
LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
(19:12-13)

12. So it came to pass, when they had brought them
outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not
look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain.”
[…]
The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered
Zoar.
Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom
and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.
So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the
inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the
ground.
But his wife looked back behind him, and she
became a pillar of salt.
(Genesis 19: 17, 23-26)

13. The Book of Revelation
● … is traditionally the last book of the Christian scriptures.
● … was also the last book of the current canon to be
accepted into it (no earlier than 397 CE).
● … is often known as the “Revelation of John” or the
“Apocalypse of John,” or by any number of other
variants.
● … was probably not, despite traditional ascriptions,
written by the same John to whom the Gospel of John is
attributed.
● … was probably written some time between 68 and 95
CE.

14. Perspectives on Revelation
● Futurist: the belief that the Book of Revelation literally
depicts future events as they will actually occur.
● Historicist: the belief that Revelation allegorically (or
otherwise symbolically) depicts a broad view of
history.
● Preterist: the belief that Revelation primarily depicts
the events of the 1st-century Apostolic period of the
early Christian church.
● Idealist/symbolic: the belief that Revelation does not
literally depict actual people or events, but rather is an
allegory of the “spiritual path” or the “struggle of good
against evil.”

15. Then I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on
the throne a scroll written inside and on the
back, sealed with seven seals.
Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a
loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll
and to loose its seals?”
And no one in heaven or on the earth or under
the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look
at it.
(Revelation 5:1-3)

16. And I saw still another mighty angel coming down
from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow
was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his
feet like pillars of fire.
And he had a little book open in his hand. And he set
his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,
and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.
And when he cried out, seven thunders uttered their
voices.
Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I
was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven
saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven
thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
(Revelation 10:1-4)

17. Media credits
The title slide includes a representation of
William Blake’s watercolor The Great Red
Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, which
painting is now out of copyright. Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reddragon.jpg