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- Title
THE HUMAN TEMPORAL CONDITION BETWEEN MEMORY AND HOPE.
- Authors
Ostovich, Steven
- Abstract
This essay brings together some works of Hannah Arendt and J.T. Fraser, two thinkers who took seriously our embeddedness in time, in order to frame a possible understanding of the human temporal condition. Arendt coins the word "natality" to describe freedom as the capacity of human action to give birth to or be the origin of new things in the world. Memory is the basis for the identity and responsibility of the actor. But is memory an adequate response to what Fraser describes as the nootemporal problem of death? Giving direction to action, a nootemporal necessity, is a matter of promising: promises are an indication of an anticipated future and hope. But does promising make sense in the face of the unpredictability of human action? Memory is fragile, and hope seems irrational. In response to this condition this essay will propose an eschatological understanding of time as key to making sense of memory and hope as rational activities.
- Subjects
ESSAYS; RESPONSIBILITY; CHILDBIRTH; MEMORY; HUMAN behavior
- Publication
Value Inquiry Book Series, 2017, Vol 299, p169
- ISSN
0929-8436
- Publication type
Article