The Now-that-was is simply the remains of the Now a moment previously; a persistence of prior Now into the present Now. In a mind with no Potentiality-for-Being such a mechanism serves only to prolong the sensation of the World as it is sensed; a stabalising function as described below, but of little evolutionary benefit. However, in the presence of an Anticipated Potentiality-for-Being, the Now-that-was becomes extremely useful in refining the Potentiality and so increasing its evolutionary worth. At the level of physicality in which Dasein evolved on earth, the persistence and inertia of beings is a universal property, exhibited and experienced by all. Consequently, the past of an object can tell one something of what it is to be in the future. The closer that past is to the present, the more accurate the prediction shall be. The Now-that-was provides a reference of the immediate past with which Interpretation can compare to the Now, and in the differences Anticipate the Potentiality of Entities at hand. The complimentary effect of having the Now linger within itself, is the sensation in Dasein of a Now that is not a fleeting succession of immediate presents, where one is oblivious to what has immediately befallen, but a smoother flow of change within-the-World that extends from the past to the present, and through Anticipation to the future. Created 15th September 2008 Last revised 11th October 2008 |