The Phenomenology of Space and Time: Husserl, Sartre, Derrida

Abstract

The notions of space and time have been a subject of philosophical discussion since antiquity. In modern philosophy, Newton’s concepts of absolute space and absolute time was subject to criticism by empiricists like Berkeley and Hume, who prepared the ground for Einstein and the ideas behind his theories of relativity. In this article, I will consider the concept of space-time from a phenomenological point of view, with particular reference to Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida. Sartre presents a phenomenological notion of space as nothingness, and I argue that this notion corresponds closely to Einstein's view, and can be extended to include the notion of time, and hence of space-time. I then discuss the apparently abstract notion of space-time, referring to Derrida's critique of Edmund Husserl's view of intuition vs. abstraction, concluding that this kind of “abstraction” is an unavoidable consequence of having a language. Thus, the concept of space-time can be integrated into a phenomenological position.