EXPLICATIONS OF THE CATEGORY OF TIME FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PROBLEMATIZATING THE CONCEPT OF CONTEMPORANEITY: WHAT IS "CONTEMPORARY"?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32461/2226-3209.2.2014.137929Keywords:
time, contemporary, eternity, existent, rationalityAbstract
The article views the concept "contemporaneity" as a central link of understanding of the time, which is revealed in sociocultural and ontological respective, in unity with the definition of the type rationality of era. There is an extension of problem of Heidegger’s analysis of existence in terms of disclosure of its temporary character in this approach. We should take into account, that the answer to the question about modernity is the answer to the question about the character of era’s rationality.
The concretization of posed problem is in including in its consideration of socio-cultural aspect in its inner connection with identified and approved ontology of the time in historical and philosophical Greek tradition. The contemporaneity in philosophic literature usually posed non-problematic, not as a conceptual content, which is questionable. It is perceived ordinary, as a synonym of "now". Heidegger’s contemporaneity posed as a usual current state of affairs.
Nowadays that interpretation is insufficient, because it doesn’t allow us to move to problematic questions about the semantic heterogeneity of socio-existential time. Without the adequate definition of contemporaneity the comprehension of the nature of historical time is impossible.
Literal, purely philological interpretation of contemporaneity is so formal, it can’t highlight the contemporaneity in the overall moment, and it can’t distinguish from untimely.
Subject of contemporaneity, as it is, does not hide in the past and in the memory and does not escape to the future.
Contemporaneity signifies the time, it relates with the time. Thus, at first glance, it depends of a time, so, eventually, it is temporal. But, as purely temporal, it can’t interest us. There will not be anything but randomness or arbitrariness.
However, the contemporaneity is not random, it is essentially. The essence of time is eternal and universally immutable, so we move to the paradoxical conclusion: there isn’t time in the time (temporality). Thus, contemporaneity is universal too, it is out of chronology.
We can understand contemporaneity like an achieving fullness of time in every present moment, it’s a concentrated beingness. Contemporaneity overcomes the fragmentation, abstractness and hollowness of physical time, converts an abstract physical chronology into existential specific time. We understand fullness of time as a condition of the subject, which keeps his purpose in the present. Fall out the time means to carry away the outer side of being, become partial. Partially fills the fundamental abstractness.
Contemporaneity is presented by universal timeless a set of requirements (basic requirement to subject is to be), so the situation should be recognized by a human. Thus, theme about the time is inextricably linked with the practice of rational thinking. That allows moving to the question about rationality: which rationality characterizes the modern era?
It can be characterized as calculated, timed, and technically-programmed. Common with the rationality there is the pursuit of efficiency, achieving the goal by the shortest path. Desire to act effectively with minimal costs and achieve maximum results we apprise as a rational action, it acts as saving efforts there. Partially fills the fundamental abstractness reference to the other particulars -- summating and increasing itself it wants to achieve wholeness of existence.
Contemporaneity is the form of social freedom, which is not covered by simple discursive comprehension, so that form of a freedom exceeds the personal ambitions and reaches the scale of whole society.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).