This is one of the papers from our 2017 Annual Conference, the Future of Phenomenology. Information and the full conference booklet can be found at www.britishphenomenology.org.uk
In a 1988 interview Levinas describes deformalisation of the notion of time as the essential theme of his research. Commentators have usually interpreted this central Levinasian idea as a provision of a concrete experience in which the formal structure of time is realised. Although correct, this accepted definition is too general. As I will demonstrate in my paper, for Levinas, different concrete experiences not only realise time differently, but, more importantly, are able to impact on the formal structure of time-consciousness itself. In order to defend this thesis, I will argue that Levinas understands the form of time-consciousness as governed by a three-aspect internal tendency or ‘conatus’: a striving for the present; a horizontal synchronisation of the past, present, and future experiences; and a self-projection into the infinite future. I will then examine the deformalisation of time in the phenomena of responsibility, fecundity, and death, in order to show the three distinct ways in which these phenomena modify, or put into question, the conatus characteristic of the form of time-consciousness. I will claim that a) responsibility for another human being interrupts the striving for the present, b) fecundity, and the time of the child it promises, refuses horizontal synchronisation, and c) death renders impossible the futural self-projection. I will conclude by suggesting that it is responsibility which occupies a privileged position with regards to the other concrete experiences which allow for the deformalisation of the notion of time.
Katrin Joost: Photographic Phenomenology
Jonathon Tuckett: The Talos Principle: When does a bot become a person?
Miles Kennedy: Where learning takes place: A phenomenological description of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
Emma Williams: The Ways We Think: Epistemology, Phenomenology and Education
Ingrid Wilkinson: Post-stroke changes in the embodied experience of walking
Valeria Bizzari: Phenomenology and its usefulness in psychopathology: an “embodied” proposal
Philip Tovey: A Remote Outpost Under Siege
Bernardo Ainbinder: Heidegger on colour-perception. A case for conceptualism in phenomenology
Bence Marosan: Phenomenological biology: A proposal for future phenomenology
Ashika L. Singh: Dwelling, Building and Homelessness
Emiliano Trizio: Science, Metaphysics and the Crisis of Rationality
Eric Chelstrom: Seriality and We-Intentions: A Sartrean Contribution to Collective Intentionality
Darian Meacham – How Low Can You Go? BioEnactivism, Phenomenology and Cognitive Biology
Felix Ó Murchadha – Speaking after the Phenomenon: Faith and the Passion of Being
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Teachers Talk Radio
LifeBlood
Navigating Life After 40
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast