60 https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/philosophie/research/theoretical-philosophy/projects/time Research projekt Time en University of Bremen Wed, 19 Aug 2026 08:22:32 +0200 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 08:22:32 +0200 University of Bremen content-222018 Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:34:48 +0100 https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/philosophie/research/theoretical-philosophy/projects/time#c222018 <p>Time is a fundamental dimension in our encounter with the world in which we live both as biophysical and as mental beings. And time appears in different guises: for instance, as physical time, as perceived time, as social-intersubjective time, and as historical time. Accordingly, time was and is a prominent theme of fundamental discussions in various philosophical subdisciplines, such as metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, history of philosophy, and ethics. Comparatively little attention, however, has been devoted to the communalities and interconnections between these discussions. The present project aims to partially fill this gap. The project intends to show how particular assumptions and presuppositions about time, stemming from one of these subdisciplines or from one specific philosophical tradition, do have consequences regarding assumptions about other subdisciplines. By doing this, the project develops its own multiperspectival view on time, without falling prey to a premature philosophical reductionism.</p> <p>One of the concrete questions to be dealt with in the present project concerns the relation between time and suffering. Very often these two concepts were and are considered to be closely related: with regard to history one might think of Plato, Boehme, and Spinoza, for instance; with regard to contemporary philosophy one might think of such different traditions as phenomenology and analytic philosophy. Here an often heard claim is that the ability to suffer presupposes a particular kind of awareness of past and future events. And it is in this border region (where questions from metaphysics, questions from the philosophy of mind and normative questions meet) that the approaches and insights from the different traditions can be brought into fruitful contact and can lead to a mutual enrichment.</p> <p>Besides, the present project will lead toward a distinction between alterable and unalterable (invariant) aspects of our temporal awareness. Such a distinction might then function as a starting point for a philosophical revisionism. A trivial example in case would be the talk about time as being a material substance or as being an economic resource. Just think of expressions such as "time pressure", "time costs", "time saving", and "lack of time". Such expressions are not only systematically misleading, they also easily induce suffering. Fortunately, however, talking about time in terms of particular metaphors is surely an alterable aspect of temporal awareness – and hence capable of (and worth) revision.</p> <p><strong>See also:</strong> <a class="internalLink" href="t3://page?uid=66609" title="Öffnet internen Link in aktuellem Fenster">Philosophy of listening</a>, <a class="internalLink" href="t3://page?uid=56157" title="Öffnet internen Link in aktuellem Fenster">Bremen's temporalities</a></p> Content