I'm not sure why but today I picked up my dusty dog-earred copy of Sein und Zeit by Martin Heidegger. Prolly haven't looked at it in earnest in thirty-some years.
In this book, Heidegger tries to explore the most fundamental concepts of Being. That would seem to be a dusty exercise in itself but Heidegger is fond of commonizing the language of experience, just before torturing the language in an attempt to explain its commonality.
He uses the example of a hammer.
To Heidegger, the hammer is a transparent instrument that only becomes apparent as itself when it fail to act as a hammer should.
You see, Heidegger thought that equipment should simply be a means to an end and not much fuss should be made about it. We use our tools to accomplish our projects, and it is these projects which give meaning to life. The only time that a tool should be brought under our scrutiny as an object with properties inherent to itself, rather than as a piece of instrumentality whose sole purpose is to further our projects - is when the tool fails.
I have to wonder how Heidegger would have thought about the Wreck.
We spend an inordinate amount of time going over the relative merits of this and that tool. Often this conversation is divorced from application. It is a Glass Bead Game.
To Heidegger, the tool only became apparent when it failed to do what needed to be done. The project was everything.
Maybe Heidegger would not have made out too well on the Wreck.
But I think he might have been a pretty good woodworker.
Regards, Tom. Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania