Abstract
Time is an enigmatic concept. Although seemingly nowhere to be found and the least tangible of anything, time is the most basic and undeniable aspect of experience. The list of words describing this enigma is comprehensive and often confusing. Therefore, to begin with, I want to clarify my use of the words Time, Temporality, and Now. By Time I do not mean the general concept, but rather a very specific idea: the mathematical-physical concept, linear-successive real-valued time measured by clocks and strongly tied to facticity. Concerning the Now, I do not correlate Now with the present, as is customarily done. Embedded in the paradigm of the Cartesian distinction between res extensa and res cogitans, the extended and the knowing substance, the concepts of Time and Now usually reflect the Cartesian division between matter and mind. In this paradigm, the Now occurs in physical time only as a transition point between earlier-later, past and future, whereas in mental time, the phenomenon of an experienced Now occurs, which is itself transient. In this Cartesian view, the Now belongs to subjective consciousness and has no place in objective physics.
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Ruhnau, E. (1997). The Deconstruction of Time and the Emergence of Temporality. In: Atmanspacher, H., Ruhnau, E. (eds) Time, Temporality, Now. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60707-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60707-3_5
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