DOI: 10. 17072/2078-7898/2018-1-26-35

Tempus (non) fugit. Different approaches to the problem of time in modern continental philosophy (by the example ofJ. -F. Lyotard) and inWhitehead’s process philosophy

Yana E. Tsyrlina
Senior Lecturer of the Department of History of PhilosophyPerm State University,
15, Bukirevstr. , Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail:inferiae@rambler. ru
ORCID:0000-0003-3006-7137

Oleg S. Myshkin
Ph. D. Student of the Department of Philosophy and LawPerm National Research Polytechnical University,
29, Komsomolskyav. , Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail:olegmyshkin@mail. ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-6850-3929

The article attempts to discover some reasons for difficulties related to the analysis of temporality which became one of the main themes of Western philosophy in the times of Augustin Aurelius and remain to be that in modern Continental philosophy. The attempt to reveal the historical roots of those difficulties is made based on postphenomenological description of inability to represent and thematize time as «the absolute present» proposed by J. -F. Lyotard and also on the heuristic possibilities of A. N. Whitehead’s process philosophy. The scheme of description of time proposed by Whitehead in such works as «Process and Reality» and «Adventure of Ideas» and then developed by such his followers and commentators as K. Robinson, S. Shaviro, L. S. Ford and I. Stengers is superimposed on the categorial apparatus of modern Continental philosophy. As a result, the inadequacy of its categorial apparatus for interpretation of time has been revealed in the context of Whitehead’s critique of traditional (Newtonian) scientific notions of time as the «mistake of simple location», and his critique of more typical misconceptions that took their place in the process of construction of different ontological systems (for example «the fallacy of misplaced concreteness»). Because Continental philosophy is focused on a consistent solution of problems associated with the features of the functioning of consciousness, it became unable to achieve the goal of non-subjective interpretation of temporality. In particular, we analyze the result of the subject’s deconstruction and of desubstantiolisation of reality (object, or things in themselves) in phenomenological and post-phenomenological tradition. Then we shortly illustrate Whitehead’s model of time based upon reinterpretation of the notion of time in Classical Modern ontology and physical science, which is suggested as an alternative for the analysis of the problems of temporality.

Keywords: temporality, phenomenology, modern ontology, essence, substance, subject, actual entities, prehension, experience.

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Received 01. 02. 2018

Forcitation:

TsyrlinaYa. E. ,MyshkinO. S. Tempus(non)fugit. Different approaches to the problem of time in modern continental philosophy (by the example of J. -F. Lyotard) and in Whitehead’s process philosophy//Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2018. Iss. 1. P. 26–35. DOI: 10. 17072/2078-7898/2018-1-26-35