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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > Time (chronology) > General
For over two and a half millennia human beings have attempted to invent strategies to "discover" the truth of time, to determine whether time is infinite, whether eternity is the infinite duration of a continuous present, or whether it too rises and falls with the cycles of universal creation and destruction. Time-Fetishes recounts the history of a tradition that runs counter to the dominant tradition in Western metaphysics, which has sought to purify eternity of its temporal character. From the pre-Socratics to Ovid and Plotinus, and from Shakespeare to Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida, Time-Fetishes traces the secret tradition of the idea of eternal recurrence and situates it as the grounding thought of Western philosophy and literature. The thinkers in this counter-history of the eternal return lingered long enough on the question of time to learn how to resist separating eternity from time, and how to reflect on the possible identity of time and eternity as a way of resisting all prior metaphysical determinations. Drawing out the implications of Nietzsche's reinvention of the doctrine of return, Lukacher ranges across a broad spectrum of ancient and modern thinkers. Shakespeare's role in this history as the "poet of time" is particularly significant, for not only does Shakespeare reactivate the pre-Christian arguments of eternal return, he regards them, and all arguments and images concerning the essence of time and Being, from an inimitably ironic perspective. As he makes transitions from literature to philosophy and psychoanalysis, Lukacher displays a theoretical imagination and historical vision that bring to the forefront a host of pre- and post-Christian texts in order to decipher in them an encounter with the thought of eternal recurrence that has been too long buried under layers of rigid metaphysical interpretation.
"Helga Nowotny's exploration of the forms and meaning of time in
contemporary life is panoramic without in any way partaking of the
blandness of a survey. From the artificial time of the scientific
laboratory to the distinctively modern yearning for one's own time,
she regards every topic in this wide-ranging book from a fresh
angle of vision, one which reveals unsuspected affinities between
the bravest, newest worlds of global technology and the most
ancient worlds of myth." This book represents a major contribution to the understanding
of time, giving particular attention to time in relation to
modernity. The development of industrialism, the author points out,
was based upon a linear and abstract conception of time. Today we
see that form of production, and the social institutions associated
with it, supplanted by flexible specialization and just-in-time
production systems. New information and communication technologies
have made a fundamental impact here. But what does all this mean
for temporal regimes? How can we understand the transformation of
time and space involved in the bewildering variety of options on
offer in a postmodern world? The author provides an incisive analysis of the temporal
implications of modern communication. She considers the
implications of worldwide simultaneous experience, made possible by
satellite technologies, and considers the reorganization of time
involved in the continuous technological innovation that marks our
era. In this puzzling universe of action, how does one achieve a
'time of one's own'? The discovery of a specific time perspective
centred in the individual, she shows, expresses ayearning for forms
of experience that are subversive of established institutional
patterns. This brilliant study, became a classic in Germany, will be of interest to students and professionals working in the areas of social theory, sociology, politics and anthropology.
Time is at the forefront of contemporary scholarly inquiry across the natural sciences and the humanities. Yet the social sciences have remained substantially isolated from time-related concerns. This book argues that time should be a key part of social theory and focuses concern upon issues which have emerged as central to an understanding of today's social world. Through her analysis of time, Barbara Adam shows that our contemporary social theories are firmly embedded in Newtonian science and classical dualistic philosophy. She exposes these classical frameworks of thought as inadequate to the task of conceptualizing our contemporary world of standardized time, computers, nuclear power and global telecommunications.
From epigraphical, archaeological, and literary evidence Jon D. Mikalson has here assembled all relevant data concerning the dates of Athenian festivals, religious ceremonies, and legislative assemblies. This information has been used to revise and update our knowledge of the calendar as it reflects Athenian life. The facts and conclusions that emerge from the author's analysis correct some earlier assumptions. He brings to light new information concerning the meeting days of the Athenian Assembly and the Council, and establishes the days of the monthly festivals. Annual festivals are either dated exactly or fixed within closer time limits. The result of the author's rigorous approach is a collection of reliable evidence as to what religious and secular activities occurred on specific days of the Athenian year. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
What is time? Did it have a beginning? What makes it appear to flow? Why is there a directionality or 'arrow' of time, and can it ever be reversed? It time travel possible? And might the universe be older than we thought? The puzzles and paradoxes of time have dazzled the world's finest thinkers and throughout the ages philosophers have wrestled with the tensions between time and eternity, linear time and cyclicity, being and becoming. When Einstein formulated his theory of relativity early this century, it brought about a revolution in our understanding of time, yet also presented a new set of mysteries. Einstein's time can be warped, leading to bizarre possibilities such as black holes and time travel, while making nonsense of our perception of a 'now' and a division of time into past, present and future. In relation to quantum physics, time takes on even stranger aspects. In this, his latest book, acclaimed physicist and writer Paul Davies confronts the tough questions about time, including the weird relationship between physical time and our psychological perception of it. He gives straightforward descriptions of topics such as the theory of relativity, time dilation and Hawking's 'imaginary time'. Davies concludes that despite decades of progress in unravelling the mysteries of time, the revolution begun by Einstein remains tantalizingly incomplete.
Watchmakers: The Masters of Art Horology gathers the work of the most celebrated independent watchmakers in the world. Thirteen artisans, each a legend in the realm of haute horlogerie, tell their stories, describing the traditional working methods and prized watches upon which their reputations have been built. Photographs of the masters in their workshops bring their stories to life, along with detailed sketches and images of their watches in all their brilliant intricacy. Watchmakers also features insightful text from other leading figures of the independent watchmaking world, including Aurel Bacs of the Fondation Haute Horlogerie and Nicholas Foulkes, writer for Vanity Fair, The Telegraph and GQ, and author of the only authorised biography of Patek Philippe.
Because they list all the public holidays and pagan festivals of the age, calendars provide unique insights into the culture and everyday life of ancient Rome. "The Codex-Calendar of 354" miraculously survived the Fall of Rome. Although it was subsequently lost, the copies made in the Renaissance remain invaluable documents of Roman society and religion in the years between Constantine's conversion and the fall of the Western Empire. In this richly illustrated book, Michele Renee Salzman establishes that the traditions of Roman art and literature were still very much alive in the mid-fourth century. Going beyond this analysis of precedents and genre, Salzman also studies "The Calendar of 354" as a reflection of the world that produced and used it. Her work reveals the continuing importance of pagan festivals and cults in the Christian era and highlights the rise of a respectable aristocratic Christianity that combined pagan and Christian practices. Salzman stresses the key role of the Christian emperors and imperial institutions in supporting pagan rituals. Such policies of accomodation and assimilation resulted in a gradual and relatively peaceful transformation of Rome from a pagan to a Christian capital.
"Only a wayfarer born under unruly stars would attempt to put into practice in our epoch of proliferating knowledge the Heraclitean dictum that men who love wisdom must be inquirers into very many things indeed.'" Thus begins this remarkable interdisciplinary study of time by a master of the subject. And while developing a theory of "time as conflict," J. T. Fraser does offer "many things indeed"--an enormous range of ideas about matter, life, death, evolution, and value.
An enjoyable and compelling ride through one of life's most
fascinating enigmas "From the Hardcover edition."
Physical Relativity explores the nature of the distinction at the
heart of Einstein's 1905 formulation of his special theory of
relativity: that between kinematics and dynamics. Einstein himself
became increasingly uncomfortable with this distinction, and with
the limitations of what he called the "principle theory" approach
inspired by the logic of thermodynamics. A handful of physicists
and philosophers have over the last century likewise expressed
doubts about Einstein's treatment of the relativistic behavior of
rigid bodies and clocks in motion in the kinematical part of his
great paper, and suggested that the dynamical understanding of
length contraction and time dilation intimated by the immediate
precursors of Einstein is more fundamental. Harvey Brown both
examines and extends these arguments (which support a more
"constructive" approach to relativistic effects in Einstein's
terminology), after giving a careful analysis of key features of
the pre-history of relativity theory. He argues furthermore that
the geometrization of the theory by Minkowski in 1908 brought
illumination, but not a causal explanation of relativistic effects.
Finally, Brown tries to show that the dynamical interpretation of
special relativity defended in the book is consistent with the role
this theory must play as a limiting case of Einstein's 1915 theory
of gravity: the general theory of relativity.
Two systems of timekeeping were in concurrent use in Venice between 1582 and 1797. Government documents conformed to the Venetian year (beginning 1 March), church documents to the papal year (from 1 January). "Song and Season" defines the many ways in which time was discussed, resolving a long-standing fuzziness imposed on studies of personnel, institutions, and cultural dynamics by dating conflicts. It is in this context that the standardization of timekeeping coincided with the collapse of the "dramma per musica" and the rise of scripted comedy and the "opera buffa," Selfridge-Field discloses fascinating relationships between the musical stage and the cultures it served, such as the residues of medieval liturgical feasts embedded in the theatrical year. Such associations were transmuted into lingering seasonal associations with specific dramatic genres. Interactions between culture and chronology thus operated on both general and specific levels. Both are fundamental to understanding theatrical dynamics of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
One Time Fits All provides the first full framework for understanding attributes of civil time, which is used throughout the world today. It focuses on three components of uniform time all linked to the prime meridian at Greenwich-the International Date Line, the worldwide system of Standard Time zones, and Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time)-tracing the story of their beginnings and eventual acceptance from original sources in Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. The book concludes with an examination of the recent changes in America's Daylight Saving Time that are scheduled to take effect in 2007.
The articles here are not only about time, they are investigations from a specific temporal perspective: the calendrical event of the millennium. This arbitrary marker has provided a challenge and focus to the International Society for the Study of Time and to thinkers in all disciplines to take stock of what has gone before and what lies ahead, approaching the event of the millennium from the standpoint of time itself, and asking critical questions about the nature and experience of time. Divided into six areas, including literature and language, music, psychology, sociology, history, and marking time, the collection is specific in content and broad in implication. Each article makes a contribution to scholarship within an individual discipline, and yet each transcends the bounds of discipline in its approach to broader issues involving the study of time. There is no other source like The Study of Time series that focuses so intensely on the nature and experience of time from diverse perspectives in all academic disciplines. This volume reveals the range and magnitude of intellectual endeavor in interdisciplinary research inspired by the enduring human fascination with time.
The ancient Romans changed more than the map of the world when they
conquered so much of it; they altered the way historical time
itself is marked and understood. In this brilliant, erudite, and
exhilarating book Denis Feeney investigates time and its contours
as described by the ancient Romans, first as Rome positioned itself
in relation to Greece and then as it exerted its influence as a
major world power. Feeney welcomes the reader into a world where
time was movable and changeable and where simply ascertaining a
date required a complex and often contentious cultural narrative.
In a style that is lucid, fluent, and graceful, he investigates the
pertinent systems, including the Roman calendar (which is still our
calendar) and its near perfect method of capturing the progress of
natural time; the annual rhythm of consular government; the
plotting of sacred time onto sacred space; the forging of
chronological links to the past; and, above all, the experience of
empire, by which the Romans meshed the city state's concept of time
with those of the foreigners they encountered to establish a new
worldwide web of time. Because this web of time was Greek before
the Romans transformed it, the book is also a remarkable study in
the cross-cultural interaction between the Greek and Roman worlds.
With the advent of the new millennium, the notion of the future, and of time in general, has taken on greater significance in postmodern thought. Although the equally pervasive and abstract concept of space has generated a vast body of disciplines, time, and the related idea of "becoming" (transforming, mutating and metamorphosing) have until now received little theoretical attention. This volume explores the ontological, epistemic, and political implications of rethinking time as a dynamic and irreversible force. Drawing on ideas from the natural sciences, as well as from literature, philosophy, politics, and cultural analyses, its authors seek to stimulate further research in both the sciences and the humanities which highlights the temporal foundations of matter and culture. The first section of the volume, "The Becoming of the World, " provides a broad introduction to the concepts of time. The second section, "Knowing and Doing Otherwise, " addresses the forces within cultural and intellectual practices which produce various becomings and new futures. It also analyzes how alternative models of subjectivity and corporeality may be generated through different conceptions of time. "Global Futures, " the third section, considers the possibilities for the social, political, and cultural transformation of individuals and nations.
In 1900 a group of sponge divers blown off course in the Mediterranean discovered an Ancient Greek shipwreck dating from around 70 BC. Lying unnoticed for months amongst their hard-won haul was what appeared to be a formless lump of corroded rock, which turned out to be the most stunning scientific artefact we have from antiquity. For more than a century this 'Antikythera mechanism' puzzled academics, but now, more than 2000 years after the device was lost at sea, scientists have pieced together its intricate workings. In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the story of the 100-year quest to understand this ancient computer. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters - ranging from Archimedes to Jacques Cousteau - and explores the deep roots of modern technology not only in Ancient Greece, the Islamic world and medieval Europe.
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