Temporality
Temporality, in philosophy, is a term used in describing the nature of time (Wikipedia nd). Typically, time is thought of in terms of a specific reference frame, addressed as the present, from which events occurring before or after are referred to as past or future events respectively.
From the industrial era and onwards, there has been a continuous change in humanity’s notion of temporality. Inventions such as the train, the telegraph, and the internet, beyond relieving us of some of the difficulty that, travelling, for instance, would otherwise entail, have each contributed to the near-annihilation of space and time. But according to Marx, this change must have profound implications for human labor (qtd. by Danielle Goldman 78). Citing the example of cotton gin, in which the introduction of machines increased the productivity of each worker by the factor of a hundred, presumably reducing the strain involved in the gin-making process too, he made the case that the machines had permitted an increase in the amount of time devoted to labor with comparatively 'less' strain (he considers this questionable; working for longer periods would put strain on the worker)
Marx’s logic, seems valid in our Post-modern age as well, and not just restricted to a work-force, but applicable to the rest of society. Indeed the change in our perceptions of temporality is much more pronounced now than it would have been in Marx’s times. Events from the past are recorded on cameras or made easily accessible on the internet, relived in our memories, and in a manner of speaking, make up a substantial part of what we define as our present. Computer simulations more or less accurately predict the weather (read future), for instance, and this, also is incorporated into our present. This begs the question, if our definitions of time along the lines of chronology; a past, a present, and a future, begin to fall apart as these three continue to merge, in what other way(s) will temporality be defined?
From the industrial era and onwards, there has been a continuous change in humanity’s notion of temporality. Inventions such as the train, the telegraph, and the internet, beyond relieving us of some of the difficulty that, travelling, for instance, would otherwise entail, have each contributed to the near-annihilation of space and time. But according to Marx, this change must have profound implications for human labor (qtd. by Danielle Goldman 78). Citing the example of cotton gin, in which the introduction of machines increased the productivity of each worker by the factor of a hundred, presumably reducing the strain involved in the gin-making process too, he made the case that the machines had permitted an increase in the amount of time devoted to labor with comparatively 'less' strain (he considers this questionable; working for longer periods would put strain on the worker)
Marx’s logic, seems valid in our Post-modern age as well, and not just restricted to a work-force, but applicable to the rest of society. Indeed the change in our perceptions of temporality is much more pronounced now than it would have been in Marx’s times. Events from the past are recorded on cameras or made easily accessible on the internet, relived in our memories, and in a manner of speaking, make up a substantial part of what we define as our present. Computer simulations more or less accurately predict the weather (read future), for instance, and this, also is incorporated into our present. This begs the question, if our definitions of time along the lines of chronology; a past, a present, and a future, begin to fall apart as these three continue to merge, in what other way(s) will temporality be defined?
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