Simultaneity and Delay: A Dialectical Theory of Staggered Time (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy)

Throughoriginal speculations on the surprisingly complementary concepts ofsimultaneity and delay, and new interpretations of the great philosophers oftime, this book proposes an innovative theory of staggered time.

 

Inthe early 20th Century, Bergson and Husserl (following Einstein)made Simultaneity—what it means for events to occur at the same time—a centralmotif in philosophy.In the late 20thCentury, Derrida and Deleuze instead emphasized Delay—events staggered overdistant times.This struggle betweenconvergent and staggered time also plays out in 20th Centuryaesthetics (especially music), politics, and the sciences.

 

Despite their importance in the history ofphilosophy, this is the first book to comprehensively examine the concepts ofsimultaneity and delay.By puttingsimultaneity and delay into a dialectical relation, this book argues that timein general is organized by elastic rhythms. Lampert's concepts describe thetime-structures of such diverse phenomena as atonal music, politicaldecision-making, neuronal delays, leaps of memory and the boredom of waiting;and simultaneities and delays in everyday experience and behaviour.