Metaphysics of Time

In the dispute between presentism and eternalism, the affective dimensions of the debate have been somewhat neglected. Contemporary philosophers of time have not tried to relate these ontological positions with two of the most discussed maxims in the history of ethics – “live in the present” vs. “look at your life under the aspect of the eternity” (sub specie aeternitatis)”– that since the Hellenistic times have been regarded as strictly connected with them. Consequently, I raise the question whether the endorsement of one of these two ontological views can make a practical difference in the way we should live.

This paper contains an investigation of Leibniz’s ontology of time. Standard debates on Leibniz’s theory of time hinge upon the question whether the nature of time is relative or absolute and focus mainly on the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence. Focusing instead on Theodicy and referring to the contemporary frame and debate, I address some different questions: whether Leibniz is an A-theorist or a B-theorist, or an advocate of a hybrid form of an A/B-theory; and whether he is a presentist (who think that only present things and states of affairs exist) or an eternalist (who claims that past, present and future things and states of affairs are equally real). After careful analysis of several passages that seemingly support a presentist interpretation, I conclude that under the most charitable interpretation Leibniz should be considered as an eternalist, and precisely as a dynamical one. I further argue that Leibniz’s peculiar view on modality mirror this hybrid theory of time.

"Artists surveyed include: Marina Abramović // Doug Aitken // Francis Alÿs // Matthew Buckingham // Janet Cardiff // Paul Chan // Jeanette Christensen // Moyra Davey // Dexter Sinister // Olafur Eliasson // Bea Fremderman // Antony Gormley // Douglas Gordon // Tehching Hsieh // Toril Johannessen // On Kawara // Joachim Koester // Lee Ufan // Christian Marclay // nova Milne // Trevor Paglen // Philippe Parreno // Katie Paterson // Raqs Media Collective // Sylvia Sleigh // Simon Starling // Michael Stevenson // Hito Steyerl // Hiroshi Sugimoto // Time/Bank // Agnès Varda

Writers include: Giorgio Agamben // Emily Apter // Karen Archey // St Augustine //  Mieke Bal // Geoffrey Batchen // Hans Belting // Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi // Henri Bergson // Daniel Birnbaum // Yve-Alain Bois // Jorge Luis Borges // Italo Calvino // Gilles Deleuze // Georges Didi-Huberman // Brian Dillon // Elena Filipovic // Elizabeth Grosz // Boris Groys // Rachel Kent // Rosalind Krauss // George Kubler // Quinn Latimer // Bruno Latour // Doreen Massey // Jean-Luc Nancy // Michel Serres // Michel Siffre // Mark von Schlegell // Nancy Spector // Jan Verwoert // Dōgen Zenji"

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology.

Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy:

“[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.”
—Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion

“A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.”
—Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.”
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World

“The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.”
—Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

“The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.”
—Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology

“This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origin in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.”
—Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst

“This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.”
—Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita

“This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.”
—Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach

“One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the framework of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.”
—Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology

“To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.”
—Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

From the Romantic era onwards music has been seen as the most quintessentially temporal art, possessing a unique capacity to invoke the human experience of time.  Through its play of themes and recurrence of events music has the ability to stylise in multiple ways our temporal relation to the world, with far-reaching implications for modern conceptions of memory, subjectivity, personal and collective identity, and history.  Time, as philosophers, scientists and writers have found throughout history, is notoriously hard to define.  Yet music, seemingly bound up so intimately with the nature of time, might well be understood as disclosing aspects of human temporality unavailable to other modes of inquiry, and accordingly was frequently granted a privileged position in nineteenth-century thought.  For if this age understood time, it was through a melody.
  This book examines the multiple ways in which music may provide insight into the problematics of human time.  Whether in the purported timelessness of Beethoven’s late works or the nostalgic impulses of Schubert’s music, in the use of music by philosophers as a means to explicate the aporias of temporal existence or as medium suggestive of the varying possible structures of time, as a reflection of a particular culture’s sense of historical progress or the expression of the intangible spirit behind the course of human history, each of the book’s chapters explores a specific theme in the philosophy of time as expressed through music.  They chart the development across the course of the nineteenth century of music’s capacity to convey the manifold nuances of time, revealing how music would finally become seen as the ideal instantiation of time and human existence itself.  At once historical, analytical, critical, and ultimately hermeneutic, it provides both fresh insight into many familiar nineteenth-century pieces and a rich theoretical basis for future research.

Part I – Spirilla Theory and Cosmology
Stephen Hawking once proclaimed that String Theory may be able to unify the various forces although later he became disillusioned thinking that there may be no Theory of Everything. This very condensed book pulls together the various forces into the Spirilla Theory which supersedes String Theory and introduces the Relativity of Consciousness.

The foundation of the Spirilla Theory is based on the writings of H. P. Blavatsky, A. B. Bailey, and A. Besant. By overlaying the works of Einstein, Bohm, de Broglie, Dirac, Bell and other great scientific minds, on top of the foundation, the unification of the various forces and theories starts to appear; each field of study supplying a part of the puzzle but only a holistic view of ALL endeavors will solve the mystery. The book starts by laying the groundwork through the Introduction, a review of Bell’s Theorem and p-adic mathematics; following this, each major section begins with a quote from the foundational works followed by the quotes from scientific papers demonstrating the current known thinking on the various topics; no attempts are made to edit the works (except with a few exceptions for clarity and/or length) of the various authors and references to the scientists’ works are maintained. Each section is pulled together so that a picture can be seen.
This section;
1. Redefines the atom with the addition of a subquark;
2. Defines the Spirilla Theory which unifies Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, and explains Quantum Entanglement;
3. Defines new particles;
4. Redefines time and space;
5. Defines and solves the mystery of Black Holes and links the cosmic and quantum black hole through the spirillae;
6. Delves into the mystery of the Macroverse;
7. Outlines the steps in the origins of the universe;
8. Adds an equation to Einstein’s original 1905 paper on relativity which sees the speed of light approaching infinity;
9. Gives the foundation for developing space travel; and, as an appendix,
10. Gives detailed information for the development of a new energy source – Quantum Energy.

Part II - Ontology, Epistemology & Manifestations
Part II is divided into three sections:
1. Ontology and the fundamental concepts of reality which discusses:
a. consciousness and delves into the mystery of human consciousness having cosmic origins;
b. reincarnation and gives the various laws affecting rebirth, with a discussion on the principle of mutation and the perfecting of form;
c. the work of form-building, transmutation of form and the building of a human form.
2. Epistemology which covers a great deal of topics however; for the purposes of NOE the subject is restricted to;
a. evolution including a definition of the Law of Evolution, the cyclic ebb and flow and the rhythmic work of creation, the process of substitution, the evolution of man and the genesis of the pithecoid stocks; and
b. death including the processes of death, two main reasons for cremation and the sequence of events at death.
3. Manifestations of the various religions including:
a. why Christians don’t believe in reincarnation;
b. the coming science of invocation and evocation;
c. Quantum Entanglement Over Time (QEoT) or The Law of Cause and Effect, and The Law of Karma with a discussion on The Golden Rule ; and
d. The New World Religion.

Complete view and Download at https://templa.online/vol-2/
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The great Poem of Babylonian Creation, the myth of Enmeduranki, the book of secrets of Enoch, the scrolls of Qumran. For the first time a single research path reveals the connections between a small bronze model of liver found in Ciavernasco of Piacenza, at the dawn of the unification of Italy, and the hidden plot of one of the most guarded mysteric disciplines of antiquity .
The threshold of time, that which is permanently defined by the alternation of state between day and night and which is induced by the continuous motion of rotation of the celestial framework, is the very essence of the principle on which the whole cosmological construction will be based. From this conceptual dimension of the sacred, which will correspond, in different places and traditions, and declined only formally in different times and ways, all the doctrinal theories of the ancient world on the nature of time and its origin. It is in this conceptual construction that the legacy of the religious orders of the Mesopotamian cultures - the one we find in the West still expressed within the Etruscan religion at the time of writing Qumran manuscripts - differs from others in assigning a key cosmogonic role to the functions of the liver, as a mundus of the body and metaphysical "threshold" placed at the origin of life and of the universe itself.
To the extent that the rhythms and rules of the passage of the great stars and the entire celestial framework on the threshold between light and darkness constituted the key to approaching the Great Secrets of the Cosmos, it was logical to imagine that the Great Babylonian Creation Poem had indicated right in the liver of Tiāmat, the germinator center of the ancient Mother on which Marduk recompiled the new celestial order, the vital seat for the "empathic" understanding of those laws.
Like a mirror of the "enimmatic" configurations that the system would have assumed in its future temporal development, the divination based on the inspection of the liver was considered in Mesopotamia, and then again for the Greeks and the Etruscans, the first and most important form of interrogation of the future destinies. And it is to this more extensive cosmological construction, and not to the only and changing outcomes of the judgments derived from it, that it is more correctly traced the interpretation of one of the most enigmatic archaeological finds of antiquity: the Etruscan Liver of Piacenza.

The paper explores time measurements and perception of time by the ancient Slavs in the Pre-Migration Period and Slavic settlement of Central and Southern Europe.  It attempts to reconstruct a year, seasonal, month-like division and naming, as well as lunar and solar time measurement.  Moreover, it explores and attempts to reconstruct what were the common Slavic month names that, is before 5th-7th centuries.  It also, discusses the issue of adoption of Julian calendar across the Slavdom in the period between the 9th-11th centuries.  The research is based on scarce limited written historical records as it explores the times before writing came to the Slavs.  Hence to a large degree it relies on abundant ethnographic sources, as well as on linguistics.  Therefore, in principle it employs a comparative methodology and often draws from Indo-European examples.

Paragraph 1: In the opening statement of Aristotle metaphysics, he declared that all men by nature desire to know and this desire to know begins or parts with the senses preferably the sense of sight. For Aristotle every animal by nature has this sensation (sight) which is a starting point for knowledge and there is some animals also which has memory and can retain what they perceived. As noted earlier, outside this sensation there are some animals that have the ability to remember (memory) what has been perceived. Thus, animals which have memory and can perceive can be taught, but those who cannot perceived cannot be taught. For him, lower animals outside human race share perception of senses and memories but a real life of man is not directed only to perception and memories but man's life is directed by art and reason which places him as a higher animal. He gave the opinion that art is expertise which is the collection of several experiences and universal idea. For you to be an expertise you must have experiences and from experience you can build expertise but if you succeed out of experience then is luck. In paragraph 2, he enunciated that for individual experience that one person is sick means that the judgement must be passing through individual judgement to general judgement. He said that when it comes to action that experience has no superiority over art. In this sense, experience and art go in tandem or hand in hand or paripasu. But ordinarily apart from action, art is superior over experience. He went further in explaining that the doctor does not cure humanity but sick man. To this effect, what counts in action is not universal but individual. The man of experience knows individual but the man of art knows universal. Hence the level of question of why belongs to art. This now points to the fact that metaphysics studies the why or ultimate causes. In paragraph 3, he likened art which is expertise to master workers and manual workers to individual experience. He explicated that the master worker has truer wisdom and knows the causes of things because they have theory for knowledge while the manual workers act according to what is instructed by the master they don't have the theory themselves. Hence the master can teach because he knows (expertise) while manuals workers cannot teach. In paragraph 4, he said that he do not recognised any of the senses as wisdom because they do not tell us the cause of things but only give us knowledge of particulars. He said that he who

My most read paper -- fully illustrated. Our modern sense of time was radically changed with the invention of photography. The past could now be visualized and frozen in fine detail. Moreover the photograph was an objective accurate record of the past, one that might yield important research information for centuries. We might call the time before photography pre-photographic just as we call the time before written records, pre-historic. In addition our personal sense of time was changed with family albums and our ability to now record our own past with precision.

Another recent paper 'Mach's Principle and its connection with Inertia, Gravitation and Dark Matter' described how dark matter is more likely to be a gravitational effect rather than brought about by a halo of dark particles surrounding spiral galaxies on the assumption that the universe is closed and finite. The paper further explored the connection between Mach's principle and inertia to give a rationale for the operation of gravitation provided that this closed universe is expanding, and mentioned that this would also provide a basis of explanation for the passage of time and also a  possible function for the existence of black holes. The latter two issues were not described but are now covered in this follow up paper.

With reference to Wheeler and Feynman's Absorber theory,  an assumption is made that the rim of the resulting bounded and spherical universe is expanding at light speed which mediates the behaviour of all EM radiation within to duplicate the action of the singular rim. For the latter, time will not exist  at light speed but time will start to increase from zero the further within the sphere. The resulting conclusion is that the passage of time within the universe is governed by and directly related to the rate of its expansion. Speculation is made of the possible function of black holes in their possible capacity for storage of mass/energy to control the rate of expansion of the universe and hence the passing of time.

Causa e effetto invertiti, entropia e sintropia, ordine e disordine, origine e scopo. Agli occhi della scienza il Tempo rimane ancora un enigma. Dall’America alla Russia passando per l’Europa, i misteri più affascinanti della quarta dimensione.

Análise da ideia de "eternidade" do ponto de vista teológico e filosófico a partir do qual aspiro responder de algum modo a seguinte pergunta: como delimitar uma forma [finita] para algo que é por definição disforme [infinito], a eternidade?

In “A Defense of Presentism,” Ned Markosian addresses the problem of singular propositions about non-present objects. The proposed solution uses a paraphrasing strategy that differentiates between two kinds of meaning in declarative sentences, and also distinguishes between two truth-conditions for singular propositions. The solution, however, is unsatisfactory. I demonstrate that both truth-conditions suffer from the same problems in spite of the examples used to support the claim that one is a proper treatment for singular propositions. Part of the difficulty is in the limited expressivity of logical formalisms, a of time, but one which calls for greater attention.

Book review of Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov
Gennady Barabtarlo edited and annotated the dream journal that Vladimir Nabokov kept for several months in 1964, under the influence of J. W. Dunne, the British scientist who held that we are as likely to dream of the near future as the near past, demonstrating that in dreams we cut loose of the worldview that binds us to a unilinear view of time. Nabokov was drawn to the refutation of Freud on dreams (as he saw it); and to the emphasis on the experience of time in imaginative narrative--a key theme in literary modernism.
The review suggests that while the theory is eccentric, it shows the value of perspectives on dreaming outside the main line of 20th-century depth psychology, including the metaphysical. Barabtarlo ties Dunne and Nabokov's thought to contemporary views of time in physics.

Presentism is, roughly, the metaphysical doctrine that maintains that whatever
exists, exists in the present. The compatibility of presentism with the theories of
special and general relativity was much debated in recent years. It has been argued
that at least some versions of presentism are consistent with time-orientable models
of general relativity. In this paper we confront the thesis of presentism with relativistic
physics, in the strong gravitational limit where black holes are formed. We
conclude that the presentist position is at odds with the existence of black holes and
other compact objects in the universe. A revision of the thesis is necessary, if it is
intended to be consistent with the current scientific view of the universe.

The arena of the philosophy of time has been largely concerned with deciding whether tense distinctions reflect absolute metaphysical distinctions or not. After bringing the debate over the metaphysical status of instantaneous velocity to bear on the debate over the nature of temporal passage, I argue that we should further investigate whether aspectual distinctions reflect objective and absolute metaphysical distinctions too. I conclude that those who think that being realists about tense uniquely makes room for the idea that time passes should be realists about the progressive too.

The physical sciences have always had a significant impact on philosophical thinking about time; I argue that the experiential aspects of time are also very relevant in this regard.  An examination of Zeno’s arrow paradox reveals the need to distinguish between the experiential and non-experiential aspects of motion.  Generalizing from this, I argue that we can usefully distinguish between the experiential and non-experiential (or purely metaphysical) aspects of temporal passage.  So doing has implications for the reality of temporal passage: those who adopt a sufficiently robust realism with regard to experience can acknowledge the full reality of one important aspect of passage.  However, for this option to be available to those who deny the existence of metaphysical passage—e.g. Block theorists (or eternalists)—the experiential and metaphysical modes of passage must be independent of one another.  I argue that there are good reasons for supposing that these are in fact independent.  I conclude with a review of as-yet unresolved problems regarding temporal experience, and suggest some topics which are likely to prove fruitful areas for future research.

This talk presents the different meanings of time and their relationship, from the basic physical time up to the psychological, cultural and personal (human) time. Science measures the physical time (metric time) and affords a conceptual construction according to the human capacity of abstraction and objectivation. The notion of time has some ontological implications. According to the analogical plurality of the sense of time, the notions of past, future and present acquire particular meanings in nature, in culture and in the temporal life of human persons.

In researching my book on time called From Time to Eternity, I was impressed by the number of references to time in Shakespeare’s works. I have now put together a selection of his sayings on time in his various plays and poems. I have also voiced my views on Shakespeare as a man and as a playwright. No doubt these views are not original but they are surely worth restating for each generation to underline his cultural importance. I am also dismissive of the ridiculous view that Shakespeare did not write his own works. His contemporaries had not the slightest doubt about his authorship and only they knew the truth of the matter. Indeed, many of them must have seen him writing his plays as nothing was done privately in those days. It is an insult to the man to ascribe his writings to anyone else but himself.

“Creating the future” is a notion introduced by Alfred North Whitehead to define the task of universities and the function of philosophy. Implicitly, it is a rejection of the idea that the future is already determined, and in some sense, already exists, with the appearance of temporal becoming an illusion. “Creation” originally meant “the action of causing to exist”, or “a coming into being”. The “future” is not normally considered to be what can be created. Originally, it meant “yet to be”. It now tends to be defined in relation to time, as “the time to come”, where “time” is assumed to be an independent existent along with space as the “containers” of material beings, with the future in some sense pre-existing its becoming present. The quantity of “matter” or “mass-energy” is assumed to be constant and to change its position and configurations in predictable ways over time. To refer to the future as being created is to reject this view of the universe and the basic concepts that define it, replacing these with concepts that can make intelligible the freedom of and creativity of people, the future as in process of being created, and humans as partially responsible for what future is created. It is to recognize that there are real possibilities that can be envisioned, understood, chosen, and brought into existence, with some process philosophers claiming that new possibilities can also be created.

Arthouse Tacheles, Kyoto School and Chaos Theory ...

Presented at the conference Indeterminate Futures / The Future of Indeterminacy, University of Dundee (UK), 13 – 15 November 2020; published 2 November 2021: https://queenmobs.com/2021/11/how-long-is-now/

The future is no longer seen as open. But before aligning ourselves to the mantra of the “slow cancellation of the future” (Mark Fisher) we should firstly have a closer look at the present, now: for if we can show that the present is indeterminate, it will be a simple task to show that the future is indeterminate as well.

The now is both a particular now – our contemporary present – and each now throughout history: the present now is thus unique. Unlike the future and the past, the now may not be reduced to statistics, probability or algorithms: according to a Sufi’s saying it is the sword that cuts time into two. To counter the “slow cancellation of the future” we thus must become aware that the doctrine of determinism merely holds for the past. Our political and artistic practice may be wholly unpredictable if we literally engage with autopoiesis, dynamic systems and feedback loops right at the edge of chaos, thus transferring an originally scientific concept to politics and arts. If understood precisely, the now is able to disrupt the pattern of determinacy through the unpredictable event of chaos. If the present now is open, the future is open too.

Dopo un lungo periodo di “disimpegno” dai temi politici e di rilevanza sociale che, in linea di massima, ha caratterizzato il cinema italiano tra gli anni ottanta e gli anni novanta assistiamo a un periodo di “rinascita” caratterizzato da un rinnovata necessità di confrontarsi con avvenimenti storici e fatti di attualità molto dibattuti dall’opinione pubblica e non ancora “assimilati” dal corpo sociale. Tra i fautori di questo nuovo fermento che si sta producendo nel cinema italiano contemporaneo vanno annoverati diversi registi tra cui: Marco Bellocchio (Buongiorno, notte del 2003), Nanni Moretti (Il caimano, 2006), Emanuele Crialese (Nuovomondo, 2006), Matteo Garrone (Gomorra, 2008), Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo, 2008). Sarebbe un errore considerare l’impegno sociale e l’importanza etica di questi film solo sulla base di un realismo tematico (il terrorismo, i fenomeni migratori, il crimine organizzato, la commistione tra criminalità e politica, ecc.) e quindi tralasciando le modalità di rappresentazione e il discorso formale che le singole opere mettono in gioco. Pur condividendo l’interesse di critica e di pubblico che questi film hanno ricevuto, l’obiettivo del presente lavoro è quello di indagare, attraverso gli strumenti della semiotica strutturale, le modalità di costruzione e di rappresentazione del discorso politico concentrandosi su un singolo testo filmico. Il Divo (2008) sfrutta differenti modalità di testualizzazione della storia politica italiana con l’obiettivo di riattivare e rielaborare la memoria di eventi relativi al periodo di travagliata transizione dalla Prima alla seconda Repubblica. Soggetto privilegiato di questa “ricostruzione” è Giulio Andreotti (interpretato da Tony Servillo), uno dei principali protagonisti della storia politica italiana e rappresentante del più grande partito di massa, la Democrazia Cristiana. Per questo motivo, l’analisi si concentrerà sulle strategie di rappresentazione del “corpo del capo” e di spettacolarizzazione delle vicende che lo hanno coinvolto. A livello diegetico, non assistiamo alla pedissequa riproposizione di eventi ed esistenti, né ad una loro ricostruzione con il solo obiettivo di valutare le colpe o smascherare presunti colpevoli. In altre parole, Il Divo costruisce il suo discorso sulla storia politica italiana attraverso una messa in discussione costante dei testi che la hanno precedentemente veicolata o che ne erano parte integrante, in una tensione costante tra documentazione e rilettura di un passato traumatico. È il caso emblematico degli inserti audiovisivi in cui si “dà voce” alle lettere scritte da Aldo Moro durante la sua prigionia ad opera delle Brigate Rosse. Il film ne modifica in parte il contenuto e mostra gli effetti patemici sui soggetti politici a cui queste erano indirizzate. L’analisi si concentrerà inoltre sui modelli figurativi e sulle strategie narrative del monologo/confessione di Andreotti; la sequenza è un vero e proprio metadiscorso in cui emerge come la modalità del potere sia il valore centrale, se non l’unico, nella costruzione del discorso politico.

Cet article interroge le grand paradoxe du temps moderne. Alors que d'une part nous vivons dans les sociétés historiques où le temps social est le plus quadrillé, contrôlé, mesuré et régimenté, nous sommes d'autre part les sujets historiques les plus anxieux, pressés, angoissés, pressés. Plus nous contrôlons et mesurons le temps, plus il semble nous échapper. Posant la question du temps comme un phénomène social traversé de rapports de pouvoir et de propriété, cet article propose des pistes pour une analyse socio-théorique de la relation entre le temps horloge et les rapports sociaux capitalistes. Il interroge également les tendances à l'aliénation temporelle du régime de temps moderne, et les rapports entre temps, développement économique et pouvoir social au coeur du parcours historique du temps horloge de 1300 à l'avènement du temps universel standard au tournant du 20è siècle. Ultimement, nous proposons que le contrôle et la mesure obsessive du temps dans les sociétés contemporaines reproduisent davantage le pouvoir social du marché, plutôt qu'un contrôle des sujets humain sur leur temps vécu et leur histoire.

I am planning a history of the notion of philosophical nonsense and naturally difficult historical and exegetical questions have come up.  Charles Pigden has argued that the notion goes back at least as far as Hobbes and that Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant (on some interpretations) and pragmatists such as William James, as well as numerous Twentieth-Century philosophers make use of it.  In this ‘paper’ I put forward for general discussion such questions as whether Hobbes was the first 'nonsensicalist', whether Kant was a 'nonsensicalist' at all, which philosophers if any have considered contradictions to be meaningless and whether Wittgenstein thought that his concept of criterion could legitimately be used verificationistically.  I shall continue to add further questions as they occur to me.

Based on the extensive historical data over the past 3000 years, the Clock of Phoenix [1, 4] shows that in the end of every long-term cycle (with periodicity of approximately 493 years) the world of ideas comes to its critical junction of disruption, so-called "Hour of Phoenix." The generations of passionate thinkers, poets and explorers born during these radical periods of transition (ranging in our epoch from 15 to 30 years) are motivated by an urgent need for new paradigms to be introduced and for new social structures to be built. In particular, the proposed model of the Clock of Phoenix is successfully applied to historical periods of the history of astrology.

This paper explores the entanglements of law, legal knowledge, and time. It suggests that time and temporality are necessary epistemic conditions for understanding legal normativity. The relationship of time, temporality and law is, however, potentially subject to historical change, but it can apparently also represent a constant. The paper discusses several dimensions of time and temporality in their relationship to law and legal knowledge like  continuity, future, or acceleration.