The Shape of Time

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These observations are an extension of those of a friend, the late Mircea Eliade, who more than once dealt with the problem of time. Philosophers have long been interested in this problem, which obviously concerns all of us. The nature of Eliade's preoccupations obliged him, but aside from that, we sense that the subject was close to his heart and that what he called “the terror of history” was a fundamental problem for him. He spoke of it at length in Le Sacré et le profane, in Le Mythe de l’éternel retour, in Images et symboles. His approach was that of a moralist and philosopher, but we know that this distinguished scholar was in reality an encyclopedist.