What is Time Like?

Abstract

In this paper I shall attempt to articulate the relation between self-consciousness and time consciousness. I shall show that the primary meaning of time entails a self-conscious being, and that time and change are related, but in an analogous way. Different forms of life are qualitatively different in that only self-conscious beings can experience the flow of time. In making this claim, I shall discuss Husserl’s distinction between pre-reflective or tacit self-awareness (inner-consciousness) and reflective self-consciousness (inner perception), and I shall show that this view is similar to Augustine’s distinction between nosse and cogitare and Aquinas’ distinction between ‘habitual’ and ‘actual’ self-knowledge. It will also be intimated that simultaneity is associated with empathy.