Philosophy and Temporality from Kant to Critical Theory

Modern European Philosophy

by Espen Hammer

This book is a critical analysis of how key philosophers in the European tradition have responded to the emergence of a modern conception of temporality. Espen Hammer suggests that it is a feature of Western modernity that time has been forcibly separated from the natural cycles and processes with which it used to be associated. In a discussion that ranges over Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Adorno, he examines the forms of dissatisfaction which result from this, together with narrative modes of configuring time, the relationship between agency and temporality, and possible challenges to the modern world's linear and homogenous experience of time. His study is a rich exploration of an enduring philosophical theme: the role of temporality in shaping and reshaping modern human affairs.

Genres: Philosophy

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2011

About the author

Espen Hammer is a Norwegian philosopher. He is a professor of philosophy at Temple University and has held visiting professorships at the New School for Social Research and the University of Pennsylvania. Between 1998 and 2007 he was a Lecturer and later Reader at the University of Essex. He currently lives in Philadelphia.

Hammer's main focus is on the post-Kantian European tradition of philosophy. Most of his work deals with questions of ethics, politics and subjectivity.

Reviews

[Dan DalMonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It discusses the problem of modern notions of time, which view it as homogenous and transient. We organize ourselves according to rigid timetables, so as to facilitate projects and work. This has the effect of imparting an instrumental significance to time, rather than an intrinsic one, i.e. we view time as a commodity-time is money-rather than as a teleological and axiológical order. This reminds a lot of Mircea Eliade’s work and indeed Hamer refers to him. Hammer provides sensitive and critical accounts of how various philosophers in the Continental tradition deal with the problem of temporality. I particularly benefited from the discussion of Hegel, who thought that reading the newspaper is like a form of prayer. Contingent occurrences are actually expressions of an eternal archetype.