Im Rückblick bekommen Ereignisse ihren Platz in einer Abfolge von lauter scheinbar fertigen Gegebenheiten. Sie werden allesamt in den Stand des »Perfekt«, des Vollendeten erhoben. Wir meinen über sie verfügen zu können, ohne sie dabei zu verändern. Tatsächlich bringen wir sie aber in der Gegenwart erneut hervor, und wir fügen sie damit unweigerlich in Zusammenhänge, an welche zwar seinerzeit nicht zu denken war - zu welchen aber bereits damals die Keime angelegt waren. Es bedarf unserer menschlichen Beteiligung zu solcher fortwährenden Verschlingung der Phasen der Zeit, nämlich der Vergangenheit, der Gegenwart und der Zukunft. Es ist jedoch im Auge zu behalten, daß es diese Phasen ohne menschliches Zutun gar nicht gibt. [...]
N1 -This paper comments the chapter »Existence in Time« in the book »Cognition of Existence« by Heinrich Barth: Time, in its utmost abstraction, is representend by a coordinate, defined prior to any event, to which a locus on that coordinate is subsequently given. In retrospect, past appearances can be ordered in their temporal sequence and in this way a process can form its own frame in time, which needs no further definition. The phases of time, past, present and future, are absent in such a frame. In introducing them we apply the concept of time that is necessarily connected to human cognition. Appearances appear exclusivly in the present. What relation do we have to the past and the future as beings centered in the present? In contemplating existence we remain outside its true reality - but still true conscious existence needs the illumination that contemplation will give. [...]
This paper comments the chapter »Existence in Time« in the book »Cognition of Existence« by Heinrich Barth: Time, in its utmost abstraction, is representend by a coordinate, defined prior to any event, to which a locus on that coordinate is subsequently given. In retrospect, past appearances can be ordered in their temporal sequence and in this way a process can form its own frame in time, which needs no further definition. The phases of time, past, present and future, are absent in such a frame. In introducing them we apply the concept of time that is necessarily connected to human cognition. Appearances appear exclusivly in the present. What relation do we have to the past and the future as beings centered in the present? In contemplating existence we remain outside its true reality - but still true conscious existence needs the illumination that contemplation will give. [...]