Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Space, Time, Individuation

According to Schopenhauer, Space and Time are each a "Principle of Individuation', because each effects a separation in representations, i. e. 'there' from 'here', and 'then' from 'now', respectively.  However, his claim of Kantian heritage for these concepts is questionable, since for Kant, they are 'Forms of Intuition', and, in his system, a 'Form' unifies a manifold, not generates one.  Furthermore, Schopenhauer takes  no account of Kant's distinction between 'Outer' and 'Inner', to which Space and Time, respectively, correspond.  Now, as has been previously discussed here, 'individuation' is equivocal, failing to distinguish Outer Individuation, i. e. separation, from Inner Individuation, i. e. integration.  Thus, 'space' clearly connotes 'separation', and, hence, its Individuation is Outer.  In contrast, Time is essentially 'inner' because, as has been detailed here earlier, it is the product of the process of Temporalization, in which every new moment is integrated with experience that has already occurred, as its culmination.  In other words, the entire past of every moment is already part of the moment prior to any subsequent analysis into the separate moments 'now' and 'then'.  So, Time can be classified as a Principle of Individuation, but not in Schopenhauer's sense of the term.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I am from Australia.
    Please find a completely different Understanding of Reality via these references.
    www.dabase.org/Reality_Itself_Is_Not_In_The_Middle.htm
    http://spiralledlight.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/4068
    www.beezone.com/AdiDa/Aletheon/zero_point.html
    www.beezone.com/whiteandorangeproject/index.htm
    www.adidaupclose.org/Art_and_Photography/rebirth_of_sacred_art.html

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