An epistemological history of time: From technology to representations

Abstract

This paper attempts to link the social history of the mechanization of time with the history of the psychological notion of time. Historical processes such as the mechanization of tower clocks from the Middle Ages onwards, the reform of the Gregorian calendar and the quarrel of the Christian and Chinese calendars characterized the modern representation of time on three points: isochrony, desacralization and abstraction. While Western societies learned to domesticate the practical aspects of time, the scholars of the Enlightenment naturalized time. They considered it a concept only related to man and used quantified time for scientific purposes. Empiricists saw time as a product of the succession of thought while idealists considered it a form necessary for the human experience to occur. Both trends agreed in removing time from nature and accepted isochrony, desaralization and abstraction as the necessary foundation for the modern notion of time.

El tiempo del reloj y el tiempo de la acción. Introducción al número monográfico sobre Tiempo y Explicación Psicológica

“…Pero, ¿para qué podría quererse ir más allá de la percepción de la instantaneidad y la duración que nos resultan directamente accesibles de forma inmediata? Buena parte del trabajo de Ratcliff (2002) puede entenderse como una respuesta a esta pregunta. Su argumento nos muestra cómo la isocronía es una consecuencia del intento de regular los ciclos de la vida social y el trabajo.…”