Mark SultanaCorresponding authorORCID id

What is Time Like?
The Relation Between Self-Consciousness and Time

Article
26/2 – Fall 2021, pages 329-344
Date of online publication: 30 décembre 2021
Date of publication: 30 décembre 2021

Abstract

In this paper I shall attempt to articulate the relation between self-consciousness and time consciousness. I shall show that the primary meaning of time entails a self-conscious being, and that time and change are related, but in an analogous way. Different forms of life are qualitatively different in that only self-conscious beings can experience the flow of time. In making this claim, I shall discuss Husserl’s distinction between pre-reflective or tacit self-awareness (inner-consciousness) and reflective self-consciousness (inner perception), and I shall show that this view is similar to Augustine’s distinction between nosse and cogitare and Aquinas’ distinction between ‘habitual’ and ‘actual’ self-knowledge. It will also be intimated that simultaneity is associated with empathy.

Keywords

Cite this article

Sulatana, Mark. "What is Time Like? The Relation Between Self-Consciousness and Time." Forum Philosophicum 26, no. 2 (2021): 329–44. doi:10.35765/forphil.2021.2602.09.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License