Die Konstruktion der Zeit in der zeitlosen Gegenwart

Abstract

The text tries to propose a concept of the present compatible with the assumptions of systems theory and to show its possible relevance. It should be a »modalized« present, interpreting past and future as non-actual »modes« of the present actual at the time and comparing them with other forms of non-actuality – starting from the study of temporal semantics in historical perspective. The sense of temporal categories arises then from the contraposition of different horizons of past and future – those of different presents, but also those that have not become actual, not even as possibilities. These very abstract reflections are then applied to the concrete topics of risk and of fashion, in order to show the necessity of a concept of present including also non-quantitative aspects.