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A review by sense_of_history
A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time by Adrian Bardon
I am approaching the end of my temporary reading program on the phenomenon of time and temporality. This book lists the various philosophical and scientific points of view, especially focussing on the question of whether time is real. To be honest, no matter how interesting, I think this is a very academic issue. As a historian, I can only ascertain, and so does Adrian Bardon, that for us humans, time indeed is tangible, that we constantly live 'in' time, and that we cannot but use notions of time and temporality in our lives to organize the world. Agreed, those notions past-present-future are vague and problematic, but we constantly use them to orient ourselves through chaotic reality. As Bardon correctly states, we cannot and must not ignore that empirical experience. “Our experience of the world is real and fundamentally involves dynamic temporality and temporal directionality. Whether or not a theoretical objective perspective would include change and direction is irrelevant to our human concerns.”
Of course, these theoretical approaches are relevant to a certain extent in formal historiography. Just think of the fierce discussions at the end of the last century, when the question was asked from a postmodernist perspective whether the study of history was not merely a representation, a construction, and - in its most radical version - independent of the question of truth. That approach was not senseless, because of course history to a certain extent IS a construction, there is no other way. But the disconnection from the question of truth was clearly a bridge too far that opened the door to fatal relativism. Fortunately, the dust has settled down a bit, and reason has largely returned.
Just like Bardon in this book concludes that different approaches are relevant, but that we cannot ignore scientific realism, I argue for a step-by-step, careful questioning of the past, in a methodologically responsible and transparent manner, with insight into the immanent necessary subjectivity, but also with a belief in a gradual growth of our knowledge of the past, every time we approach history with specific questions from our own context. Acquiring 'ultimate' knowledge about the past is an utopian and absurd pursuit. But a pragmatic approach, aimed at a better orientation in the historical reality, and therefore also in the reality of today and tomorrow, is and must be the appropriate way that can be provided by the study of history. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.
Of course, these theoretical approaches are relevant to a certain extent in formal historiography. Just think of the fierce discussions at the end of the last century, when the question was asked from a postmodernist perspective whether the study of history was not merely a representation, a construction, and - in its most radical version - independent of the question of truth. That approach was not senseless, because of course history to a certain extent IS a construction, there is no other way. But the disconnection from the question of truth was clearly a bridge too far that opened the door to fatal relativism. Fortunately, the dust has settled down a bit, and reason has largely returned.
Just like Bardon in this book concludes that different approaches are relevant, but that we cannot ignore scientific realism, I argue for a step-by-step, careful questioning of the past, in a methodologically responsible and transparent manner, with insight into the immanent necessary subjectivity, but also with a belief in a gradual growth of our knowledge of the past, every time we approach history with specific questions from our own context. Acquiring 'ultimate' knowledge about the past is an utopian and absurd pursuit. But a pragmatic approach, aimed at a better orientation in the historical reality, and therefore also in the reality of today and tomorrow, is and must be the appropriate way that can be provided by the study of history. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.