Temporal Ontology Research Articles

Werner Maihofer’s Understanding of Law as a Research Problem in the Post-soviet Philosophy of Law

Legal existentialism holds a prominent place in the center-of-human philosophical and legal concepts. One of the most widely recognized representatives of legal Existentialism is the eminent German jurist Werner Maihofer.The article is dedicated to contribution of post-Soviet jurists to understanding the concept of W. Maihofer’s legal thinking and to identifying in their work underlined issues that need further philosophical and legal development.The results of the study revealed that contemporary Ukrainian law philosophers mainly rely on an intersubjective approach as a means of explaining the existence of law and its cognition, which may explain both the relevance of the ideas of the German jurist and its role for the philosophical thought of the present. It was found that in independent Ukraine, S. I. Maximov was the first one to address views of W. Maihofer. He adopted Maihofer’s phenomenal logic of his ideas in developing the concept of legal reality. Based on the author’s classification of ways of understanding was determined the place of the Maihofer’s concept in non-classical law philosophy. The most significantcontribution to the study and popularization of legal views of W. Maihofer in the post-Soviet space was made by O. V. Stovba. He first introduced the main publications of the German jurist to scientific circulations; systematized and summarized the critical remarks of foreign researchers regarding thelegal ideas of the German jurist; outlined his own vision of the main advantages and disadvantages of the Maihofer’s concept and suggested ways of its further development; analyzed and implemented the original reinterpretation of his understanding; demonstrated the heuristic potential of his ideas as part of the methodological basis for the concept of temporal ontology of law. The prospects of further elaboration of philosophical and legal problems of W. Maihofer’s work are determined. They are conditioned by the need to answer the questions posed by critics of his concept; the existence of conflicting assessments of commentators; lack of research in certain aspects of the concept.

Quantum-synergetic ontology of generalized physicality (III): psychosemantic language of theater, anthropological jazz.

The paper continues the topic of applications of the methodology of generalized physicality, which goes back to the concept of quantum synergetic anthropology, elaborated in detail in the previous parts of the triptych. Ontologies of states (functional bodies and subteles of generalized corporeality) and temporal ontologies are considered on the material of the theatrical play of actors. An isomorphism of a well-known musical notation and representation of a changing anthropological profile in the form of a chord of simultaneously activated "sounding" states of the actor is constructed. The relevance of such a musical metaphor, an analogy of the freedom of acting improvisation, as an anthropological jazz inherent in any performer, albeit to varying degrees, is discussed. The classical manner has less variability than, in fact, jazz improvisation. В Parallels of such performances are drawn with the works of classics of theater directing, philosophy of play and communication of musicologists: K. S. Stanislavsky, A. A. Vasiliev, B. Latour, J. Huizinga, I. E. Berendt.In fact, a certain language of interpretation of acting is proposed with the help of dynamic schemes for describing what is happening during the game. If these schemes are adequate to the stage reality, which we tried to prove, then they may well be used in the preparation of actors, staging performances, etc. In fact, a new psychotechnics is being created that allows changing the available capabilities of acting technique, replenishing its tools. In addition, this kind of notational representation of actors' parts allows you to archive and decipher the director's idea in a fairly universal way.

Quantum-synergetic ontology of generalized corporeality (II): post-nonclassics, temporality, and reflection of acting

In this article, the author advances the idea of generalized corporeality in its functional manifestations in the acts of communication, activity, and theatrical art. The work is dedicated to the problem of “smart body”, in other words, conscious and manageable generalized corporeality is one of the core themes in development and self-improvement of acting skills and onstage genuineness. The key problem is the problem of harmony, unity between inner and outside, words and doings, thoughts and actions, realized by the actor just partially, so is by the stage director and audience. The author attempts to describe this problem by means of post-nonclassical philosophical methodology offered by V. S. Stepin, concepts of post-nonclassical practices, synergy of motion and state, which marks the synthesis of the ontologies of states of generalized corporeality and temporal ontologies, introduced in the previous article. The author also attracts the concept of unconscious reflection of V. Lefebvre, which describes a special type of reflection as a certain unconscious component of generalized corporeality that creates a specific interpretation of the skill and work with time in post-nonclassical context. Interpretation of the acquired acting skills that taught in many schools of classical and contemporary theatre, from K. Stanislavski and M. Chekhov to A. Artaud and E. Barba, are also viewed through the prism of reflection of synthetic ontologies of generalized corporeality. In conclusion, the author introduces theatrical interpretation of the twofold activity triad, which allows embracing the relationship between various observers, the actors of theatrical event: actor – stage director – audience.

QUANTUM MECHANICS, TIME, AND THEOLOGY: INDEFINITE CAUSAL ORDER AND A NEW APPROACH TO SALVATION

AbstractQuantum mechanics has recently indicated that, at the fundamental level, temporal order is not fixed. This phenomenon, termed Indefinite Causal Order, is yet to receive metaphysical or theological engagement. We examine Indefinite Causal Order, particularly as it emerges in a 2018 photonic experiment. In this experiment, two operations A and B were shown to be in a superposition with regard to their causal order. Essentially, time, intuitively understood as fixed, flowing, and fundamental, becomes fuzzy. We argue that if Indefinite Causal Order is true, this is good evidence in favor of a B‐theory of time, though such a B‐theory requires modification. We then turn to theology, suggesting that a B‐theoretic temporal ontology invites serious reconsideration of the doctrine of salvation. This paper concludes that the best explanation for salvation given a B‐theory is mind‐dependent salvific becoming, a type of psychological soteriological change that occurs through downward causation.

Smearing time: Critical temporality and corporate ontology

Since 1972 a leap second has been introduced into global time standardization systems, due to the discrepancy between Coordinated Universal Time and International Atomic Time. Until recently, the leap second has been a consensual, if mildly uncanny adjustment, a para-governmental temporal wobble. Google's explanation of its actions with regard to the insertion of a leap second smeared into its Network Time Protocol servers is couched in terms of a period extending initially over 20 h, ultimately reaching 24 h. Google is intent on taking ownership of the smear and transducing it into a technologically stabilised change. Although there are a number of different strategies of smearing time, Google advocates for its standard smear that it wants other digital giants like Bloomberg, Amazon and Microsoft to replicate. In this paper we first analyze Google's temporal strategy in terms of its affinities and departures from the classical view of time in Aristotle's core considerations in the Physics Book IV, in terms of a consonant enumeration but in our example at variable speeds/intervals, and then in terms of Wolfgang Ernst's conception of time-critical media. Leap seconds conform to Ernst's sense of kairotic time, an auspicious micro-moment that is both techno-mathematically pre-defined and decisive for ensuring operationality. Google executes smeared time-critical processes but wants to establish mastery over the measurement and manipulation of humanly imperceptible microtemporal events by inhabiting temporal ontology itself, proposing its practice, based on misleading its servers, as a model for other digital hegemons.

Quantum-synergetic ontology of generalized corporeality: from anthropology of theatre to humanization of artificial intelligence. The question of boundaries

The question of understanding of corporeality in philosophy, science, medicine and culture goes back centuries and remains relevant until the present. This relates mostly to anthropological challenges of the crisis technogenic civilization that is trying to improve human nature, without understanding of its holism, taking into account existential issues of hybrid man-machine systems and socies, virtual and cyber-physical umvelts, within which corporeality becomes more of an atavism and a deterrent for the rapid worlds managed by the powerful artificial intelligence. In philosophy of the XX century, the understanding of generalized corporeality is associated primarily with the phenomenological project of E. Husserl and its advancement in the works of M. Merleau-Ponty, French poststructuralists A. Artaud, G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, who conceptualizes the idea of generalized corporeality in cultural terms, rather than in natural science. The author proposes the introduction of the ontologies of generalized corporeality based on differentiation of its functional manifestations in communication and theatrical art, referring to the modern representations on the mechanism and their potential implementation on the level of physiology and mental sphere of personality, as well as on the level of substantial factors of biology, psychophysics and robotics. For these purposes, the author attracts the concepts of synergetics and quantum theory as the grounds for such functional ontologies; at the same time, full ontology of generalized corporeality is presented by direct product of the ontologies of states and temporal ontologies of physical and mental processes of a human, which allows creating a semiotics of corporeality of acting or anthropomorphic avatar-robot. The article explores the boundaries of emulation of human corporeality by the modern means of IT technologies, and the question of unattainability of many creative and spiritual sub-bodies of a person using technical means.

Temporal ontology and joint action

ABSTRACT The aim of the paper is to describe the temporal ontology of that basic manifestation of social agency that is the living of life together. The distinction between states, processes and events is clarified. There are notions of ‘doing things together’ that fall into each of these temporal categories. The ontology of the state of friendship is examined as one instance of living life together. Friendship is a state of community between agents that is sustained by a continuity of processes and events that are characteristic manifestations of the state, some (but not all) of which are processes of doing things together. The continuity of processes and events involved in friendship is distinctive in lacking a telic point. Further instances of shared life that possess this characteristic temporal structure are described. It is argued that this notion of a mode of shared life cannot be recovered from various kinds of temporally extended agential structures that are the ingredients of Michael Bratman’s work on shared agency. In so doing, I clarify the notion of a shared life and make a case for the fruitfulness of approaching questions about joint action from the perspective of work on the ontology of time occupation.

Situating time

A scholarship on “time” has emerged that pays attention to the ways contemporary economic life and information technology affect temporal perception and practice. A critique of this scholarship, along with a joint reading and reinterpretation of Alfred Gell’s two books The anthropology of time and Art and agency, provides this article’s point of departure for “situating time” in the theoretical sense of setting out an explicit temporal ontology—a kind of reflection that I argue is often missing in scholarship on time. This temporal ontology is in turn substantiated and developed through an ethnographic exploration of time’s performative dimensions, brought to bear through practices of situating time, here in an ethnographic sense. The empirical material is from fieldwork among people working via the internet from their homes in rural Denmark.

Review of Jens Kjaerulff. “Situating time: New technologies at work, a perspective from Alfred Gell’s oeuvre”

Review of Jens Kjaerulff. “Situating time: New technologies at work, a perspective from Alfred Gell’s oeuvre”

Fuzzy Ontology Based Activity Recognition for Assistive Health Care Using Smart Home

Assistive health care system is a viable solution for elderly care to offer independent living. Such health care systems are feasible through smart homes, which are intended to enhance the living quality of the occupant. Activities of daily living (ADL) are considered in the design of a smart home and are extended to abnormality detection in the case of health care. Abnormality in occupant behavior is the deviation of ongoing activity with that of the built activity model. Generally, supervised machine learning strategies or knowledge engineering strategies are employed in the process of activity modeling. Supervised machine learning approaches incur overheads in annotating the dataset, while the knowledge modeling approaches incur overhead by being dependent on the domain expert for occupant specific knowledge. The proposed approach on the other hand, employs an unsupervised machine learning strategy to readily extract knowledge from unlabelled data using contextual pattern clustering and subsequently represents it as ontology activity model. Ontology offers enhanced activity recognition through its semantically clear representation and reasoning, it has restriction in handling temporal data. Hence, this article in addition to unsupervised modeling focuses at enabling temporal reasoning within ontology using fuzzy logic. The proposed fuzzy ontology activity recognition (FOAR) framework represents an activity model as a fuzzy temporal ontology. Fuzzy SWRL rules modeled within ontology aid activity recognition and abnormality detection for health care. The experimental results show that the proposed FOAR has better performance in abnormality detection than that of the existing systems.

What makes for a successful sociology? A response to "Against a descriptive turn".

This paper responds to Nick Gane's "Against a descriptive turn". I argue that descriptive research strategies are more open and inclusive than those which purport to be causal where explanatory adequacy is assessed by expert insiders. I also show how open descriptive strategies can assist a wider explanatory purpose when these are conceived in non-positivist ways. I argue that epochalist sociology lacks an adequate temporal ontology because it collapses descriptive specificity back into overarching epoch descriptions. Finally, I argue that if the entire range of publications associated with the Great British Class Survey are considered, that it has demonstrated a productive way of recognising the significance of class which has facilitated major research advances in its wake.

From “Block-Things” to “Time-Things”: Merleau-Ponty’s temporal ontology in part two of the phenomenology of perception

Scholars such as Renaud Barbara and Bernhard Waldenfels and Regula Giuliani have emphasized time’s central role in Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, and Michael Kelly has shown how the Phenomenology’s “Temporality” chapter already broaches his later ontological concerns. I deepen our understanding of this temporal–ontological nexus by showing how Merleau-Ponty’s temporal ontology in fact erupts even earlier in the Phenomenology, as an underlying theme that unifies part two, on “The Perceived World,” as leading into the “Temporality” chapter. I do this via a close study of the chapter, “The Thing and the Natural World,” first explicating some profound but easily overlooked points about time implied in Merleau-Ponty’s initial remarks on the constancy of form and size. I then closely analyze his study of color constancy in relation to his central source, David Katz’s The World of Colour, to show how color leads him to conceptualize things as what I call “time-things”—and more generally to conceptualize things, the world, and nature, as being in such a way that temporality is ingredient in their being. This leads to some implications for his temporal ontology.

Freezing time, preparing for the future: The stockpile as a temporal matter of security

This article analyses stockpiling as a security device that hoards time, stores power and buffers disruptions. The stockpile is a temporal matter of security by virtue of its ability to freeze time and to prepare for future emergencies. Stockpiling is informed by anticipations of threats but also materially underpins expectations. After unpacking the temporal ontology of stockpiling, the article traces its history as a security device and technology of power. Stockpiling enabled the emergence of the earliest states by establishing the means to store surpluses and centralize power. In modernity, stores became more dispersed as money, commodity exchange and new infrastructures made it possible to procure resources through circulation. In the 20th century, stockpiling became a reflexive security device reactive to risks associated with the disruption of these circulations. Finally, the article illuminates the role of reserves in contemporary German catastrophe preparedness to show that stockpiling remains an important security technique. Yet fiscal austerity and budgetary constraints limit security stockpiling. To compensate for the absence of public security stores, the government is prompting citizens to establish emergency stockpiles. The article offers a theoretical, historical and empirical engagement with stockpiling and thereby further elucidates the material politics of anticipation.

Ontology-based question understanding with the constraint of Spatio-temporal geological knowledge

Spatio-temporal geological big data contain a large amount of spatial and nonspatial data. It is important to effectively manage and retrieve these existing data for geological research, and understanding the question represents the first step. This paper aims to better understand the problem to improve the retrieval efficiency. In geology, the organization of massive unstructured geological data and the discovery of implicit content based on knowledge and relationships have been realized. However, previous findings are primarily based on spatial and nonspatial dimensions, and the key words searched are often just segmented words. In geological research, the dimension of time is as important as spatial and other nonspatial dimensions. In addition, an individual user’s goal may be more than a superficial representation of the problem. In this paper, we first construct the geological event ontology, organize Spatio-temporal big data with this dimension, and expand the concept of geological time. Next, based on geology knowledge, we propose spatio-temporal rules, spatial characteristics, and domain constraint rules to assess the consistency of the ontology and to maximize the relationship between the information and improvements in the efficiency of information retrieval. Then, the ontology question is extended, and the rules between this question and other ontologies are expounded to deepen the understanding of the problem. Finally, we evaluate our contribution over a real geology dataset on a knowledge-driven geologic survey information smart-service platform (GSISSP), which integrates geological thematic ontology, geological temporal ontology, and toponymy ontology. This study reveals a positive impact of the incorporation of multiple ontologies and feature rules, which is meaningful for improving accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Temporal ontology: tenselessness and quantification

Temporal ontology is concerned with the ontological status of the past, the present and the future, with presentism and eternalism as main contenders since the second half of the last century. In recent years several philosophers have argued that the presentism/eternalism dispute is not substantial. They have embraced, one may say, deflationism (about temporal ontology). Denying or downplaying the meaningfulness of tenseless language and wielding the so-called triviality objection have been their main argumentative tools. Other philosophers have opposed this trend, thereby holding fast to what could be named substantialism (about temporal ontology). Their leading defensive strategy has consisted in bringing to the fore tenselessness or unrestricted quantification in an attempt to resist the triviality objection. Despite this reaction, the past few years have hosted a new wave of deflationism, wherein the triviality objection and qualms about the legitimacy of tenselessness and unrestricted quantification still loom large. This paper counters this trend, by providing a new clarification of tenseless predication, unrestricted quantifiers and their role in rescuing substantialism from the triviality objection. A crucial ingredient is this: the appeal to unrestricted quantifiers and to tenseless predication are not alternative strategies, but rather two sides of the same coin, since substantialism requires quantifiers that are both tenseless and unrestricted.

Temporal Ontology and the Metaphysics of Perspectives

The question of what exists is often seen as one of the metaphysician’s primary concerns—an ontological stance is a central and basic component of a great many positions in metaphysics. Consider, in particular, the debate surrounding the metaphysics of time: the question of whether non-present entities exist is typically thought of as one of the fundamental issues at stake in the debate, with each position on the nature of time consisting in part of an answer to this question of ontology. My purpose in this paper will be to raise some worries about this focus on ontology, and to sketch an alternative approach to conceptualizing the debate—one that I think can help us get a clearer and deeper understanding of the fundamental issues at stake. I’ll focus in particular on the case of time and the ontology of non-present objects, but the framework I present is ultimately meant to apply more broadly to a range of debates involving ontology. On the framework I propose, the basic question at stake in this and other analogous debates is the following: Of the various perspectives we might adopt on reality, which perspective is fundamental? I’ll explain what this means and how it can help us reconceptualize the relevant metaphysical issues.

How does Paul Ricoeur apply metapsychology to collective memory?

The concept of “abused collective memory” gathers two of Ricœur’s main lines of concern: history and psychoanalysis. The article aims to explain how this convergence was possible, especially, when the transposition of the Freudian metapsychology from the individual to the collective level was hindered by the Ricœurian emphasis on the Freudian libidinal economy. Our hypothesis is that this convergence required two intermediate steps. The first one gathered psychoanalysis and history within the larger framework of otherness as flesh. The second step was a transcendental turn, which would lead Ricœur to inquire about the structures of collective existence that make it possible to apply psychoanalytic categories at that level, rather than considering how this transposition can be done. By taking this turn Ricœur found that a phenomenology of the capable human being was the condition of possibility of a temporal ontology, and then, could describe this ontology as the condition of possibility of his phenomenology.

A Pace of Our Own? Becoming Through Speeds and Slows – Investigating Living Through Temporal Ontologies of The University

This article is concerned with new feminist materialism’s transformatory ethical potential with regards to the (fast) neoliberal university. It is also shaped and inspired by Karen Barad’s question: ’How can I be responsible for that which I love?’ (Barad 2016). The text thus investigates possibilities of thinking through new materialist theorising and concepts for examining conditions of the im/possibilities of living live-able academic lives in current political climates. As a response to those conditions a cry for slowing down has surfaced and manifestos for slow scholarship, reading, pedagogy, professors have emerged. The fast-slow dualism seems to be of pivotal importance in the ongoing criticism of neoliberal universities. The authors share concerns expressed by ‘slow professors’, but at the same time they argue that slow movement in the academia reestablish a problematic dualistic approach. In the text criticism of binary conceptualisations is offered by arriving at ethical considerations (instead of tactical). The article is inspired by Donna Haraway’s plea to ‘stay with the trouble’ (2016) to uncover the complex temporalities of the present and – possibly – its subversive potential. Furthermore, while staying in this troublesome moment, the authors investigate temporal ontologies through the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (2007 [1980]), Henri Lefebvre (2004) and Barad (2012) – as well as the temporalities implied in the ‘slow science movement’. Finally, the video art by Bill Viola is considered as a way of accessing problematics of shifting between ‘fast’ and ‘slow’.

What is temporal ontology?

Temporal ontology is the part of ontology involving the rival positions of presentism, eternalism, and the growing block theory. While this much is clear, it’s surprisingly difficult to elucidate the substance of the disagreement between presentists and eternalists (to focus on the most widespread positions). Certain events happened that are not happening now; what is it to disagree about whether these events exist (simpliciter, or else tenselessly)? In spite of widespread suspicion concerning the status and methods of analytic metaphysics, skeptics’ doubts about this debate have not generally been heeded, neither by metaphysicians, nor by philosophers of physics. This paper revisits the question in the light of prominent elucidation attempts from both camps (by Ted Sider, Christian Wüthrich, and Tom Stoneham). The upshot is that skeptics were right to be puzzled. The paper then explores a possible re-interpretation of positions in temporal ontology that links it to normative views about how we should live as temporal beings.

Modularity and compositionality: The case of temporal modifiers

This paper concerns the possibility of building Montague grammars in a modular and incremental way. As an illustration, we investigate the following question. Given an atemporal Montague grammar, on the one hand, and a temporal ontology, on the other hand, is it possible to combine them into a new grammar such that it would: (i) conservatively extend the original grammar, and (ii) allow temporal modifiers to be accommodated.