Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Time and Times

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Introduction to Anticipation Studies

Part of the book series: Anticipation Science ((ANTISC,volume 1))

  • 570 Accesses

Abstract

As complex as it is to come to grips with the ontological categories of whole, process and causation, or the framework of levels of reality, the subsequent step is even more complex, since it involves clarification of the category of time – by and large acknowledged as one of the most difficult problems of all. The main result of the present chapter is the distinction between the pure category of real time and other forms of real time connected to wholes and the processes that last in them. This chapter will pave the way for the later result that anticipation does not violate pure time. As we will see, anticipation always works from qualified times – that is, from times qualified by wholes and the processes lasting in them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Apropos unidimensionality, it is worth noting that recent proposals to exploit two or more dimensions to formalize time rely on the difference between a primary dimension and other, secondary dimensions. See e.g. Bailly, Longo, and Montevil (2011); Louie (2004). Two more observations are in order. First, as far as ontological issues are concerned, one should never forget that “the map is not the territory”. Any representation, formal or otherwise, of an entity or a category cannot be traded for that entity or category. Second, the proposals developing the idea of multidimensional time have been advanced to gain better understanding of the nuances of biological time in particular (Bailly et al., 2011) or to provide a framework of sufficient generality that it can deal with a multiplicity of different times, including physical, chemical and biological times (Louie (2004) and the series of papers to which it refers). According to the distinction between the pure acceptation of time and other (domain-based) acceptations, these formal proposals do not affect the pure acceptation of time I am presently discussing (with the caveat that there may be deep and so-far unexplored connections between the ontological framework presented above and Louie ’s theory).

  2. 2.

    The usual connection between simultaneity and relativity theory does not affect the categorical analysis of pure time, because the lack of universal simultaneity arising from the theory of relativity depends on specific physical constraints such as the finite velocity of light.

  3. 3.

    I unify his ‘explosive’ and ‘pushing forward’ times because their structural features are the same.

References

  • Adam, B. (1995). Timewatch. The social analysis of time. Cambridge, MA: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, H. (1918). The education of Henry Adams. An autobiography. Boston, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi, L. (1999). The time of presentness. A chapter in positivistic and descriptive psychology. Axiomathes, 10, 49–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi, L. (2001). Presentational primitives. Parts, wholes and psychophysics. In L. Albertazzi (Ed.), Early European contributors to cognitive science (pp. 29–60). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi, L. (2003). From Kanizsa back to Benussi: Varieties of intentional reference. Axiomathes, 13(3–4), 239–259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi, L. (2011). Renata Calabresi: The experimental analysis of the present. History of Psychology, 14(1), 53–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi, L. (Ed.). (2013). Handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailly, F., Longo, G., & Montevil, M. (2011). A 2-dimensional geometry for biological time. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 106(3), 474–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bardon, A. (2013). Brief history of the philosophy of time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Benussi, V. (1913). Psychologie der Zeitauffassung. Heidelberg: Winter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boroditsky, L., & Ranscar, M. (2002). The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 13(2), 185–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cartensen, L. (2006). The influence of a sense of time on social development. Science, 312, 1913–1915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Editor. (2014). Be here now. Nature, 507(27 March 2014), 399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, K. T. (1976). Everything in its path: Destruction of community in the Buffalo Creek flood. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman-Rakic, P. (1997). Space and time in the mental universe. Nature, 386, 559–560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gurvitch, G. (1964). The spectrum of social time. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guyer, J. I. (2007). Prophecy and the near future: Thoughts on macroeconomic, evangelical, and punctuated time. American Ethnologist, 34(3), 409–421. doi:10.1525/ae.2007.34.3.409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, E. T. (1990). The hidden dimension. New York: Anchor Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammond, C. (2012). Time warped. Unlocking the misteries of time perception. Edinburgh, UK/London: Canongate Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, N. (1950). Philosophie der Natur. Abriss der speziellen Kategorienlehre. Berlin: De Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Herder, J. G. (1799). Eine Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Frakfurt und Leipzig.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. (1991). On the phenomenology of the consciousness of internal time (1903–1917). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Islas-Lopez, M. (2008). The future in the present: Projectivity in a transnational migrant community. Rutgers University.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1990). The principles of psychology (2nd ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc..

    Google Scholar 

  • Koselleck, R. (1979). Vergangene Zukunft. Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, R. (2014). How different cultures understand time. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-different-cultures-understand-time-2014-5.

  • London, J. (2002). Cognitive constraints on metric systems: Some observations and hypotheses. Music Perception, 19, 529–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Louie, A. H. (2004). Multidimensional time: A much delayed chapter in a phenomenological calculus. https://ahlouie.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/multi-time.pdf

  • Luce, G. G. (1973). Body time. The natural rhythms of the body. Paladin: St. Albans.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. (1976). The future cannot begin: Temporal structures in modern society. Social Research, 43, 130–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, K. (1972). What time is this place? Cambridge, MA: Mit Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markosian, N. (2014). Time. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. (Spring 2014 Edition).

    Google Scholar 

  • Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (2003). Models of agency: Sociocultural diversity in the construction of action. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 49, 1–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • McTaggart, J. M. E. (1908). The unreality of time. Mind, 17, 457–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mermin, N. D. (2014). QBism puts the scientists back into science. Nature, 507(27 March 2014), 421–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metzinger, T. (2004). Being no one. The self-model theory of subjectivity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mische, A. (2009). Projects and possibilities: Researching futures in action. Sociological Forum, 24(3), 694–704.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morley, D. (2000). Home territories: Media, mobility, and identity. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nakajima, Y., Shimojo, S., & Sugita, Y. (1980). On the perception of two successive sound bursts. Psychological Research, 41, 335–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowotny, H. (2005). Time. The modern and postmodern experience. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patomaki, H. (2011). On the complexities of time and temporality: Implications for world history and global futures. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 57(3), 339–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (1997). Iconic graphs: An exercise in topological phenomenology. Axiomathes, 8(1-3), 455–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (2006a). First steps in experimental phenomenology. In A. Loula, R. Gudwin, & J. Queiroz (Eds.), Artificial cognition systems (pp. 358–386). Hersey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (2006b). Levels of reality and the psychological stratum. Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 61(2), 163–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (2011a). Ontology as categorial analysis. In A. Slavic & E. Civallero (Eds.), Classification and ontology. Formal approaches and access to knowledge (pp. 145–157). Ergon Verlag: Wuerzburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (2011b). Steps toward an explicit ontology of the future. Journal of Futures Studies, 16(1), 67–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (2012). Nicolai Hartmann. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. (fall 2012 edition).

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli, R. (2016). Pure and qualified time. In R. Poli & K. Peterson (Eds.), New research on the philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann (pp. 3–22). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polletta, F. (2006). It was like a fever: Storytelling in protest and politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, H. (2013). Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, K. J. (1989). The body in time. New York: Wiley and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorokin, P. A., & Merton, R. K. (1937). Social time: A methodological and functional analysis. The American Journal of Sociology, 42(5), 616–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Southerton, D., & Tomlinson, M. (2005). Pressed for time’– The differential impacts of a ‘time squeeze. The Sociological Review, 53(2), 215–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szelag, E., von Steinbüchel, N., Reiser, M., Gilles de Langen, E., & Pöppel, E. (1996). Temporal constraints in processing of nonverbal rhythmic patterns. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis, 56, 215–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tavory, I., & Eliasoph, N. (2013). Coordinating futures: Toward a theory of anticipation. American Journal of Sociology, 118(4), 908–942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Steinbüchel, N., Wittmann, M., & Szelag, E. (1999). Temporal constraints of perceiving, generating, and integrating information: Clinical indications. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 14, 167–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wackermann, J. (2007). Inner and outer horizons of time experience. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 10, 20–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner-Pacifici, R. (1987). The Moro morality play: Terrorism as social drama. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wajcman, J. (2015). Pressed for time. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittmann, M. (2011). Moments in time. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5, 1–9. doi:10.3389/fnint.2011.00066

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wittmann, M., & Pöppel, E. (2000). Temporal mechanisms of the brain as fundamentals of communication – With special reference to music perception and performance. Musicae Scientiae, 3(1 suppl), 13–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zerubavel, E. (1981). Hidden rhythms. Schedules and calendars in social life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zerubavel, E. (2003). Time maps. Collective memory and the social shape of the past. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and social research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Roberto Poli

Authors
  1. Roberto Poli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Poli, R. (2017). Time and Times. In: Introduction to Anticipation Studies. Anticipation Science, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63023-6_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation