Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED.

An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

Chapter III: TIME DISCLOSED.

An Investigation of Time, Space, and Being

“In a world where time is a sense, like sight or like taste, a sequence of episodes may be quick
or may be slow, dim or intense, salty or sweet, causal or without cause, orderly or random,
depending on the prior history of the viewer”
(Alan Lightman, Einstein’s Dreams)

“Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river”

(Borges, 1964)

1 Introduction

Sustainable development deals with time. In 1992, Fresco and Kronenberg wrote that before
achieving sustainability there are two main questions to answer:
• Over what space is sustainability to be achieved?
• Over what time is sustainability to be achieved?
This chapter is an attempt to give some useful indications in order to answer these questions.
The concept of time is going to be defined with particular relation to its connection to space,
change, and being (human). Cultural contribution in this chapter derives from the analysis of
several philosophical studies on time, space, and Being as well as their interconnection,
constantly manifesting in everyday life. This philosophical underpinning will help us in
clarifying the meaning enclosed in the term time, the definition of which has been given in the
first chapter.
The aim of this chapter is a deeper investigation of the existing relations between space, time
and being as analyzed in philosophical, sociological and anthropological works, in order to
provide a set of information that will be helpful in defining some evaluating tools to be
applied in future environmental and urban planning. In order to define a frame for evaluating
sustainable time in planning, this set of information will be, in the next chapter, more widely
investigated in relation to Dooyeweerd’s philosophy of space and time.
In the first section of this chapter, the term space is analyzed through several philosophical
definitions in order to have a general understanding of its wide meaning. This, in the second
section, will help in bringing together the two concepts of space and time, as interconnected

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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

fields of experience for human beings. The concept of experience, connected to perception, is
here introduced with reference to a mathematical structure called “observer”, which will be
further developed in order to focus the role of the subject (human being) in perceiving
surrounding environment. Observer, space and time will be finally investigated with reference
to motion, exposed in the theory of relativity, as related to change and events.
The third section goes on into the analysis of time and space as a social experience. All
concepts here defined are presented as tessera of a big mosaic, drawing the social spatial and
temporal context in which we live. Time and space as experienced in everyday life are at the
bases of social existence and identity. Social space, the land or the urban area where social
time discloses through the succession of events and change within a community, is the field of
action for planners and decision makers. They can, just by drawing a line on a map, change
the configuration of that social spatial and temporal system. This chapter is an attempt to
define a general social and physical context for planning by an investigation of space and time
to be further analyzed with respect to the theory of modal aspects by Hermann Dooyeweerd.

2. Time and Space

The beginning of everything is boundless, and from whence things arise,

there they must return, for things give satisfaction and reparation to one
another for their injustice, as is appointed according to the ordering of
time.
Anaximander, c 600 BC

2.1 Defining Space

What is space? Such an apparently simple question has hardly a unique answer. Ludwig
Wittgestein notes that the mystery accompanying questions like this has nothing to do with
the object of interrogation, but rather, with the usage of the term in everyday life.
(Wittgenstein 1958, p. 26)
This implies that the definition of the term space is subjective, depending on how it is used or
experienced in relation to the surrounding environment (social, political etc.)1 . Defining the
term “space” is thus an attempt to find a substance to a substantive(ibid, 1).

1
“Space” as a spoken word appears in a myriad of examples taken from everyday life. If the question what is
space? were put to the common man in the street, he would certainly answer “You Know Space!” perhaps even
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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

Saint Augustine, in defining time, states “What, then, is time? I know well enough what it is,
provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain I am
baffled”(Coffin- Pine 1961: 264). The same can be said for the term “space” (Brown 2006);
despite its constantly being experienced, it is very difficult to give a unique definition.
The meaning of the term “space” as well as that of “time”, reside below the threshold of
perception, thus, it is difficult to define them by a set of words that, in the common use of
language, refer to material or substantial objects2.
Lexical definitions of the term space are the following (Dictionary.com):
a) The unlimited or incalculably three-dimensional realm or expanse in which all
material objects are located and all events occur;
b) The portion or extent of this in a given instant; extent or room in three dimensions: the
space occupied by a body;
c) Mathematics. A system of objects in relation to the objects defined;
d) Extent, or a particular extent of time: in the space of two hours;
e) An interval of time, a while: after a space he continued his story.
Space, as an unlimited three - dimensional realm in which all material objects are located and
all events occur (definition a), is intended as a “container”, as a “big box”. It represents the
immediate spatial environment around the common man in the street (Brown 2006). This
container is not just static and fixed in its structure. The verb occur indicates that events
happen, that there is a transition from a condition to another (from a state where an event has
not yet occurred, to another where events have taken place). This transition marks the time -
space between non - event and event, defining an interval that can be called “change”
(Hofmeister 2002). Space has a dynamic character deriving from the continuous “change of
state” defined by the succession of events through time. Change is the process or result of
making or becoming different (Dictionary.com), which describes an active and passive
process at the same time. Change implies action.
The mathematical space (definition c) is described as a system of objects in relation to the
objects defined. To define objects implies that there is someone doing it. This assumption, as

following this reply with a gesture of his arms in a manner suggesting his immediate spatial environment. For the
common man the question has an evident answer within the boundaries of the everyday life – world (Brown
2006).
2
A real definition of space is impossible. All the so-called definitions are either synonyms or partial
descriptions. If we say that space is a condition of all material existence as extended, this is mere tautology, for
“extended” implies space. If we leave out the word “extended,” we have no definition of space, but a fact,
perhaps the most important one, about space. Space, like force, life, and motion, is a word which is incapable of
further explication (Janes 1884: 90)

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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

well as change, introduces in the spatial system another element, the subject or human being,
who establishes a relation between himself and the spatial system by defining objects and
making things different. This relation is thus subjective and ties up man and environment very
deeply. In the following paragraph this concept will be analyzed within the formal structure of
the “observer.”
Definitions d) and e) consider space as an expression of time, as lengths of time during which
change is experienced. These definitions describe a wider frame of expression of space,
change, and human beings as unified in a dynamic role.
Space is thus more completely defined with reference to time, as a field for temporal relations.
If related to everyday life, the term “space” can be defined as the environment, social,
political and economic context within which communities live. Space thus becomes the
expression of community identity as a result of human acting on it.
Kevin A. Lynch stated that “Time is the missing dimension of space. Time is embodied in the
physical world”(1972: 1). In his work, space, intended as the place where people spend their
life and build their social relations, is the result of external signs produced by subjective
experience of time and concretized by planning through centuries. The quality of personal
image of time is crucial for individual well - being and for a successful management of
environmental change. Space, intended as the external physical environment being
continuously modified by anthropical processes, plays a role in building and supporting the
image of time. Relation between space and time is defined by a continuous reciprocal
interpenetration of signs and meanings. They support each other in building and maintaining
the meaning of the external physical context within which social life takes place. Space is a
composition and stratification of time signs coming from past human experiences. In
aboriginal cultures, space is assimilated to time through the ritual of telling a story on the
sand. This ritual consisted of drawing signs on the sand while telling a story that recalls the
ancient figure of Djugurba. This represents the ancestral past, the very beginning of time, and,
at the same time, a spatial location “on the other inside of the earth’s surface; it is the realm
of the ancestors, those whom the dead become as they recede from living memory into a past;
it is the source of energy for the growth of the contemporary world; and it is the narration or
creation of that energizing as a social act”(Dubinskas and Traweek 1984: 24). The fusion of
the two temporal realms, past and present, is recalled in the sand - narration through the
construction of time and space. The sequence of elements in the story- telling process gives a
temporal order to the narrative, and the arrangement of elements on the sand reflects the
spatial ordering of the story (TenHouten 2005: 33). The example of aboriginal sand ritual

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shows how in ancient or primitive cultures time and space are reunited in a continuous
recalling of ancestral origins. Through space and time the ancestral equilibrium of man-
environment-nature is constantly emphasized.
Definition of space as exposed in this section is not exhaustive. The aim is to provide the tools
for a clear understanding of the concept of space and time as intended in this research and
investigated in the next pages. Space is the physically built or natural environment changing
through time by humans’ actions. Together with time, it is the argument for planning. In his
book What Time is This Place? Kevin Lynch states that each place has a temporal dimension
that is given by “architectural signs” coming from history and past cultures. These signs
constitute the “symbolic environment” that creates a sense of stability within a community
(Lynch 1972: 40). According to Lynch, in the light of this thesis’ aim, space can be defined as
“the most physical expression of time, a system of relations where sense of life, social and
cultural identity, and spiritual orientation reside” (ibid.:40).
The above definition implies that space cannot be fully investigated if separated from time.
The following section is an attempt to do an underpinning into the concept of space and time
reunited in a four - dimensional system representing everyday life. The relation between the
actor, as an acting subject in order to make change, will be analyzed through the
mathematical structure of the “observer.” This will help in making clear the relation between
man - surrounding environment and the role time plays.

2.2 Experiencing Time and Space: an Underpinning in the Relation of Man -

Environment

I might revel in the world of intelligibility which still remains to me, but although I have
an idea of this world, yet I have not the least knowledge of it, nor can I ever attain to such
knowledge with all the efforts of my natural faculty of reason. It is only a something that
remains when I have eliminated everything belonging to the senses… but this something I
know no further… There must here be a total absence of motive - unless this idea of an
intelligible world is itself the motive… but to make this intelligible is precisely the
problem that we cannot solve.
Immanuel Kant

In ancient everyday thinking, space and time were terms used to define distances. Questions
such as “How far is it from here to there?” were usually answered by “About an hour, or a bit
less, if you walk briskly” or “If you start now you will be there about noon.”
Far and long, and near and soon are used to mean how much or how little effort it would take
for a human being to span a certain distance, be it by walking, by ploughing, or by harvesting.

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If people had been asked to explain what they meant by space and time, they could have said
that space is what you can pass in a given time, while time is what you need to pass it
(Bauman 2000).
With the introduction of non-human and non-animal means of transportation, time needed to
travel ceased to be the feature of distance. The emancipation of time from space was caused
by the technological evolution. Faster machines meant accelerated time and, consequently,
larger space; this changed the perception of time and space by human beings.
The perception of space through time is a concept related to everyday life. The relation
between time and space has been investigated by many philosophers, scientists, and writers in
order to explain the ruling dynamics that describe the “experience of space and time.”
The first known published work suggesting the connection between space and time was an
essay on cosmology written by Edgar Allan Poe, who stated “Space and duration are one”
(Poe 1848).
In 1895, H. G. Wells wrote “There is no difference between time and any of the three
dimensions of space except that our consciousness moves along it...scientific people know
very well that time is only a kind of space”(Wells 1992, available at www.online-
literatire.com/wellshg/timemachine/1/).
In 1905 Albert Einstein developed his theory of relativity, according to which space and time
were treated as two aspects of a unified whole, the space-time (Einstein 1956). In physics,
space-time is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single construct
called the space-time continuum (Wikipedia, 2008). A space-time is the arena in which all
physical events take place.
The encyclopedia (http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com) gives the following definition
of the term space-time as

a central concept in relativity that replaces the earlier concepts of space and time as separate absolute entities. In
relativity one cannot uniquely distinguish space and time as elements in description of events. Space and time
are joined together in an intimate combination in which time becomes the fourth dimension...in space- time,
events in the universe are described in terms of a four – dimensional continuum in which each observer locates
an event by three spacelike coordinates (position) and a timelike coordinate. The choice of the timelike
coordinate in a space- time is not unique; hence, time is not absolute but is relative to the observer. A striking
consequence is that simultaneity is no longer an intrinsic relation between two events, it exists only as a relation
between two events and an observer. In general, events at different locations that are simultaneous for one
observer will not be simultaneous for another observer”(2008).

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Hans Reichenbach states that space and time are different concepts that remain distinct in the
theory of relativity; the real space is three- dimensional and the real time is one- dimensional,
the fourth-dimensional space-time used in the theory of relativity is a mathematical artifact
(Reichenbach 1957).
Within space and time, events are described by four dimensions, but, following the theory of
special relativity3, the fourth dimension, time, depends on the observer.
Bruce Bennet, Donald Hoffman and Chetan Prakash, from the University of California,
defined the “ observer” as a single formal structure (Bennet, Hoffman, and C. 1989: xi). They
represented an observer with mathematical terms, a six–tuple, the constituents of which are
the following:
X - configuration space
Y - premise space
E - distinguished configurations
S - distinguished premises
π - perspective
µ - conclusion kernel or interpretation kernel
Following their theory, an observer is a mathematical structure in which events (E, S) in
measurable spaces (X,Y) are related by π functions, called perspective, and measured by µ,
called conclusion (ibid.: 23).

X
x
Eµ

S
y
Y

figure 1: illustration of an observer. Source Bennet, B.; Hoffman D & C. page 24

3
The theory of special relativity was introduced by Albert Einstein in 1905 with his paper “On the
Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.” It is the theory of the structure of the space - time and it is based on two
postulates: Galileo’s principle of relativity and the speed of light. This theory introduced the concepts of time
dilation, length contraction, relativity of simultaneity and mass-energy equivalence.
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The above illustration is a representation of how an “observer” works. While observing, it

interacts with an object through perception. It does not perceive the object itself, but rather a
representation of some property of the interaction. The set X represents all properties of the
object of relevance to the observer; it is not a “real world” but a mathematical representation.
Suppose x ϵ X represents the property of relevance in the present interaction. The observer, in
consequence of the interaction receives the representation y = π(x) where y ϵ Y. The set Y
represents all premises from which the observer can make inferences.
An “observer” in this mathematical conception, is a well-defined structure within which
subjects (human beings, but also animals) observe. Observing implies a process of perception
and elaboration of data perceived in order to give conclusions (µ = conclusion reached by an
observer for premises represented in S).
An “observer” is not just related to a visual perception. Bennet, Hoffman and Prakash
proposed an “observer thesis” stating that “To every perceptual capacity in every modality,
whether that capacity be biologically instantiated or not, there is naturally associated a formal
description which is an instance of the definition of observer” (ibid. 1989: 2-3).
This means that observing can be related to all senses through which we perceive.
The mathematical structure of an observer (see fig. 1) can help in defining the relations
between the subject (human being) and the observed (environment).

X X = specific context,
environment
x
x= property of relevance of
Eµ perceived objects
E= an event occurring
contained in X and that may
contain x
π π= relation describing
perception towards
representation of the
S perceived object
y y=subjective representation
of x
Y Y=set of subjective
The subject. What’s its representations
location within the µ=conclusions
structure “observer?”

Figura 2. illustration of an "observer" related to a context (Source: author’s adaptation of figure 1)

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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

Figure 2 is an attempt to apply the mathematical structure of an “observer” to a specific

context, for example, a built environment. The set X represents the built environment (a
neighbourhood, a town) and x can be defined as all those elements that have relevance to
perception. A subject (for example, the boy in the figure) perceives x through his senses (by
observing, by tasting, or by hearing). Perception gives representations of x through the
relation π (x) = y; this relation is called perspective (ibid.), and it is related to the subjective
perception. In mathematics y, contained in Y, is the premise from which the subject gives
conclusions, or makes inferences.
Applied to an environmental context, attempting to consider it not just as a formal structure,
the “observer” raises some important questions that introduce leading concepts.
The first question is related to the set X containing x. If X is the considered environment and x
is the object having relevance in the subjective perception, x will change in relation to the
subject.
This means that different subjects will perceive different objects (intended as elements having
relevance). Perceiving is thus a subjective process.
The second question is about the relation π describing perception into giving representation of
x (π(x) = y ϵ Y). This is directly related to perception, as well as the given y, so we can say that
π has a subjective character.
Representing the perceived environment is thus a subjective process.
The third question is related to the phase of giving conclusions or making inferences,
expressed by the relation µ. This relation is subjective as well, as it derives from subjective
premises. Theorizing what perceived is thus a subjective process.
The structure of the “observer” shows how this general mathematical formalization could be a
valid frame in analyzing people’s behaviour within an urban context.
Through perception, environment is experienced. The “observer” represents the “space” of
perception, intended as the physical entity around the subject (X, x), as well as his sensitive
and logical universe (space inside him). This gives an answer to the question put in figure 2
about the location of the subject in relation to the “observer.” The perceiver is inside the
structure.
It experiences the environment through the structure, which assumes different connotations
according to different perceivers. It is possible to assert that the perceiver and the observer are

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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

the same entity, as supported by a definition of the term observer as perceiver, a person who
becomes aware of things or events through the senses4.
The following figure is a formalization of the relation subject (perceiver) → observer.

µ
x
x
X = environment
x
y
y
µ Y= subjective universe of
x representation

x
x
µ Perception and π
giving premises
µ conclusions
making inferences

Figure 3. Relation perceiver – observer (source: author’s elaboration)

Perception is experienced through senses. The famous phrase “esse est percipi” (to be is to be
perceived), expression of George Berkley’s philosophy, is based on the assumption that the
meaning and the existence of an object resides in its being perceived5.
Space and time are experienced by human beings. Immanuel Kant6 argued that the concept of
time is not derived from sensory experience alone. Time is the “formal a priori condition of
what appearances whatsoever”(Kant, 1965).The structure of the observer is helpful in
understanding how the process perception-knowledge takes place.

4
available at http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl.webwn.
5
George Berkeley (1685-1753) was an Irish philosopher and theologian. His philosophy is based on the
assumption that God is the creator of the universe, therefore the deep meaning of natural reality resides in God.
Reality is expressed by a number of ideas that, in order to become concrete, need to be perceived by a human
spirit. This reference to his thought has been taken to indicate that perception as relation man- environment, was
deeply investigated in philosophy.
6
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher. In his Critique of Pure Reason he wants to
demonstrate that we have synthetic a priori knowledge of the spatial and temporal forms of outer and inner
experience, grounded in our own pure intuitions of space and time. The necessary condition for this a priori
knowledge of space and time is the theory that spatiality and temporality are only forms in which objects appear
to us and not properties of objects as they are in themselves (Kant 1965).
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Perception is at the beginning of the process of space and time experience; the relation π,
expressing the phase of giving representations of the object perceived, is the phase before
theorization (making inferences expressed by the relation µ).
According to the structure of the observer, the process of subjective experience through time
can be represented as follows:

ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT
(spatial extensiveness) (immediate spatial environment)

SUBJECTIVE SPHERE
(senses of human being) field for
perception
π
ππ
SUBJECTIVE SPHERE
µ (analytical capacity of human being)
π field for theorization

External influences

Influences on the
environment
FIELD OF ACTION TIME

Figure 4 subjective experience through time. (Source: author’s elaboration)

Sensitive perception of objects or events sends data to the analytical sphere in order to
elaborate representations of what is perceived, which are basic for the following theorization
represented by the relation µ.
The process ends with the phase of action on the surrounding spatial environment that will be
changed providing reactions to the wider external environment. Changes of spatial
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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

configuration (environment) will be subsequently experienced by the observer in the cyclical

evolving of the process through time.
Subjective experience is thus a temporally ordered sequence of events whereas the objective
world now corresponds to a single perceived event in a three- dimensional space (Brown
1999).
In Reflections on Relativity (ibid.), Kevin Brown described the experience of space and time
by using a conceptual model of a hypothetical observer. He conceived time and space as
perpendicular dimensions; events were located in the objective world (environment), and
perception of events was a succession of such discrete worlds. The pictures below is a
representation of his theory of perception

Figure 5. perception of events through time (Source: Brown 1999)

If compared to figure 4, this “observer” describes a succession of perceived events through

time represented as discrete and separate areas. Such discrete succession of events creates a
gap between areas. In his book, he states that “One difficulty with this arrangement is that it
isn’t clear how (or whether) these worlds interact with each other. If we regard each instant as
a complete copy of the spatial universe, separate from every other instant, then there seems to
be no definite way to identify an object in one world with the same object in
another”(www.mathpages.com).

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Following figure 4, experience of space and time is a continuous cyclical process increasing
along the temporal dimension through a succession of events. Each increasing temporal
interval caused by a succession of events defines a process of change that constitutes the
relation between previous and posterior events. This relation is possible only through time.7

TIME

T5
events
T4

change
T3
Temporal succession
T2

T1

T0
Temporal interval

Figure 6. Schematization of the temporal succession of events. (Source: author’s elaboration)

Temporal intervals between successive spatial configurations are distances measured within
time, defined by temporal motion of events along the arrow of time. Aristotle in his Physics
(Turetzky 2000: 18-19) argues that time is intimately connected with motion, and faster and
slower motion are defined by time.8 In the above figure, change, time, and motion are related
in a continuous process. How does the perceiver become aware of it? By change of
surrounding environment, the transition from one state of a changing thing to another.
Change, the initial and final state of a modification, is measured by before and after. Aristotle

7
Plato was the first on record to treat time as distinct from change. Yet his account of time still bears marks of
the ancient myths; it is told in narrative form as a story, without the support of reasoning. It is Aristotle (384- 322
B.C.E.) who first provides an analysis of the nature of time. To study nature is for Aristotle, to study the
principle of change and motion.
8
Ancient Greek philosophers were concerned with the problem of change. Heracleitus of Ephesus (late 6th to
early 2nd century B.C.E.) a Presocratic thinker, claims that all things are in a flux, subject to a unifying measure
or rational principle. This principle (logos, the hidden harmony behind all change) binds opposites together in a
unified tension. Heracleitus linked this tension to that of a lyre, where a stable harmonious sound emerges from
the tension of the opposing forces that arise from the bow bound together by the string. Plato (384-322 B.C.E.)
considered time as a moving image of eternity that moves according to numbers. Time’s movement is the one of
the sphere of the universe, a circular motion (Turetzky 2000).
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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

states that time is countable in motion, “by counting the before and after of the motion we
count the interval between”(ibid.: 22). Time is thus counted in change, in particular what is
counted is the position in the before/after sequence. That is described by Aristotle with the
introduction of the concept of “now” as an instant counted in the interval between before and
after. The now makes time continuous by connecting the past with the future and by defining
the watershed between being and becoming9.
The formal structure of the observer, if applied to the analysis of the relation man –
surrounding physical environment, helps in clarifying the role of time in the continuous
process of human perception and experience. This structure demonstrates that there is a deep
relation between time and space, disclosed by change effects, as anticipated in the previous
section. The above analysis demonstrates that it is possible to define two kinds of time
dimensions, one linear and one cyclical. Linear time is represented by the arrow (see figure 4
and figure 6) that measures the succession of change phases. Cyclical time is more subjective,
deeply related to experience of time through perception. This concept will be analyzed in the
next section, by a deeper investigation of the concept of being (human being, the subject) as
analyzed in philosophical studies.

3. Time and Being

The formal structure of the “observer” has introduced space and time experience with a
definition of the elements involved.
As written in the previous paragraph, an “observer” works thanks to the following elements:

a subject, who perceives in some way the surrounding environment;
an object, perceived by the subject, contained in the surrounding environment
that are related by

perceiving

creating images of what is perceived or giving premises (π)

making inferences or giving conclusions (µ).

9
The continuous succession of change through time defines the temporal becoming, which describes a dynamic
equilibrium of coming to be and passing away. In defining being and becoming, G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831)
introduced the concept of “nothing as identical with being...being and nothing vanish into one another, each
passes over into the other...all phenomena appear in an intermediary state between being and nothing”(Hegel
1989: 105). Jaques Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704), a French bishop and writer, wrote that “There is never more
than an instant between us and nothingness. Now we possess it, now it perishes; and we would all perish with it
if promptly and without any loss of time we did not take hold of a similar one”(Turetzky 2000: 43).
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This formal frame, if applied to a social and environmental context, gives a useful description
of the relation man- surrounding environment, despite its mathematical terms. The analysis of
this relation through the “observer” helps in considering time as the dimension within which
change, as succession of previous and posterior states of the observed object, is measured by
before and after. Previous and posterior, or before and after, are terms of temporal and spatial
comparison. Asserting that one event occurs before or after another implies that there exists a
temporal succession within which events are ordered. It is the same for the terms “previous”
and “posterior,” which give to events or objects a spatial and temporal succession. The
meaning of temporal and spatial succession resides in comparison. Comparing means giving a
location, be it a temporal or a spatial one, to events or objects by someone, an actor. This is
the subject, or human being, who is the one who makes spatial and temporal experience
possible. Experience of space and time, as exposed above, is a continuous process in which
past and future are connected by the present “now.”10
These complex relations cannot exist without a perceiver, a subject who makes experience
unique. In ancient cultures, the physics unit of past and present was constantly realized in
ceremonies and rituals. At the moment of performance of a ritual, the persona of the living
and the ancestors are not distinguished, they are the same entity (TenHouten 2005). This
means that primordial space and time are constantly recalled through human figure; that is an
important ring of the chain unifying past, present, and future.
For its relevance, the human being, as the central figure in the role man- environment, has
been very largely investigated in philosophy, literature, and many other disciplines. Many
architects in the past and nowadays have tried to concretize in their projects the deep relation
between man and space by recalling ancestral rituals and symbols.
Experiencing time and space is, above all, subjective, related to human’s nature, belonging
culture and society. The relation human being- time is a deeply investigated subject in many
disciplines. There is a wide bibliography on philosophical, anthropological, and social works.
Time has been investigated also in economics and business. Each discipline gives a different
aspect of this complex relation, and all together can help in building a general knowledge.
Generalizing is not useful if considered as an end in itself. The aim of this paragraph is to
focus the relation human being -time through perception and experience; this relation is
important in indicating the direction towards a sustainable urban and environmental planning.

10
Saint Augustine (Augustinus Hipponensis, 354-430) considered the present “now” as an unextended instant.
He noted that any interval of time can be divided into two parts, one past and one future, only the past and the
future can be extended; the present cannot be extended (Turetzky 2000: 59)
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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

The concept of being in relation to time was deeply investigated by Martin Heidegger,11 who,
in 1927, wrote a book titled Being and Time, which is considered his masterwork, one of the
most important and difficult works of 20th century philosophy.
In the preface, the author wrote “...our aim in the following treatise is to work out the question
of the meaning of being and to do so concretely. Our provisional aim is the interpretation of
time as the possible horizon for any understanding whatsoever of being”(Heidegger 1996:
xix). Time is a horizon, an important element in understanding the meaning and role human
beings play with others within a social and environmental context.
The concept of time in relation to being is basic in Heidegger’s philosophy. In the essay “My
Way to Phenomenology” (1963), Heidegger himself gives an autobiographical sketch of the
manner in which he came to write Being and Time, stating that he had been influenced by:
→ Franz Bentano’s dissertation “On the Manifold Meaning of Being According to
Aristotle,” with which he came into contact in 1907;12
→ Edmund Husserl’s “Logical Investigations” (1900), a pivotal work in
phenomenology.13
In particular, Bentano’s dissertation introduced Heidegger to the problem of being, the second
provided him the method of phenomenology.
In Being and Time, Heidegger does an analysis of the Da-sein. In every day German language
the word Dasein means life or existence. This noun is used by other German philosophers to
denote the existence of any entity; Heidegger breaks the word down to its components “Da”
and “Sein” and gives to it a special meaning which is related to his answer to the question of
who the human being is (Heidegger 1996).
Da-sein, that being which we ourselves are, is distinguished from all other beings by the fact
that it makes issues of its own being. The essence of being, as investigated by Heidegger, is
temporality, that resides in its being in the world . 14
How does Heidegger conceive the compound expression being-in- the-world ? In Heidegger’s
view, being-in-the-world does not simply mean “to be contained” in a wider environment as
an object in a box. The relation man- environment, is not to be reduced as just a physical

11
Martin (1889- 1976) was a German philosopher. His masterwork Being and Time was written in 1926 in the
Black Forest, Todtnauberg in Baden. It was dedicated to Edmund Husserl, “in friendship and admiration.”
12
Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano (1838- 1917) was a German philosopher and psychologist. He
was interested in Aristotle’s works; he wrote a dissertation on the meaning of being in Aristotle’s philosophy.
13
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (1859 -1938) was a German- Czech (Moravian) philosopher who started out
as a mathematician in the late 19th century. As a movement and a method, as a “first philosophy,”
phenomenology owes its life to him.
14
An outline of Heidegger’s philosophy of Being and Time is provided in appendix D.

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perception through the senses of surrounding objects and events. It is enriched and
characterized by the feeling of belonging that makes the perceived object be recognized, by
the human being, the perceiver, as part of its life. This physical and psychical relation is thus
subjective and unique. The “being maintains itself in the changes throughout its modes of
behaviour and experiences as something identical and it is related to the others”15(Heidegger
1996: 115).
Temporality is the essence and meaning of Da-sein. Heidegger defines temporality as “the
ontological meaning of care” (ibid.). Care represents the need for expectations and planning
for the future, and it is concretized in the succession of past, present, and future.
The above concept recalls the formal structure of the “observer” described in the previous
section. Through the observer, the relation man- surrounding environment has been analyzed
as a continuous process of perception and theorization through time. Succession of time is
marked by change in surrounding space. Change is caused by environmental natural processes
and accelerated by humans acting on it. The concept of care, introduced by Heidegger,
represents the cause for human acting, the need and reason for change, and it depends on
perception and experience. Time is a horizon, as care exists in time and it discloses itself
within the succession of temporal dimensions past, present, and future.
Da-sein is not temporal for the mere reason that it exists “in time.” In Heidegger’s philosophy,
temporality is conceived as a “movement through the world as a space of possibilities” (ibid.).
This movement is given by the succession of time through past, present, and future (see
previous figures 4 and 6). The concept of a world as a space of possibilities introduces the
term “choice”. Any action implies a preventive decision that could be more or less
conditioned. Choosing means deciding for an action instead of another one, and each action
leads to a different direction and different results. Care, is the condition sine qua non for
choice and action.
A comparative analysis of Heidegger’s philosophy on time and being and of the structure of
the “observer” is thus useful in better understanding the complex relation of man-
environment. Philosophical concepts applied to a mathematical structure can represent an
attempt to concretize what till now has remained abstract. This is the aim of this thesis. The
definition of a frame to evaluate time within a sustainable context can be based on these
philosophical- mathematical assumptions.

15
See appendix D.

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The temporal dimension of a social environment is defined by the succession of present, past
and future. Heidegger described them with three specific terms: “Thrownness”, “Fallenness”
and “Existence” (ibid.).
The term “Thrownness” indicates the phenomenon of the past as having been. The human
being finds itself in a certain historically conditioned spiritual and material environment-the
world-in which the space of possibilities is always somehow temporally limited. Past
represents a defined temporal and spatial environment, a written history, that conditions
human acting.
The term “Fallenness” represents the present. The human being lives among other human
beings, in a wider environment. It is in the present that the observer works. Present and past
are connected, as the former discloses itself in a context that is temporally limited by the past.
According to the “observer,” succession of past and present is given by continuous change.
The term “Existence” represents the phenomenon of the future. The human being projects its
plans and expectations into the future (ibid.: 40). By the concept of care, needs and
expectations are concretized in making choices and acting for the future. Future dimension is
related to present and past as care is conditioned by perception and experience of surrounding
spatial and temporal environment.
Past, present, and future are thus temporal horizons in a human’s life. With reference to the
“observer,” past is space and time experienced through changes. Present space and time,
being experienced by the observer, derive from the continuous past succession of change (see
figure 6). Future is unknown, but it is not independent from the present. The observer is a key
element in disclosing the meaning of time through this evolving process.
The concept of man acting in a temporally and spatially defined environment, influencing it
by planning for his future, is at the core of sustainability. The definition of the term sustain as
“to hold up under;... to maintain or prolong”(Collins, 2000), presupposes a pre-existence to
be maintained or prolonged. In sustainable development, to maintain and to prolong means to
preserve our culture, our tradition and the environment for future generations; it means to
preserve our being-in-the- world and our being-with-the-others.
Heidegger’s philosophy of being helps in clarifying the role man-environment as played
through the “observer” and it introduces very important concepts for further understanding of
Dooyeweerd’s philosophy, as it will be exposed in the next chapter.
The human being, as part of a community, has an acting role in a specific temporal context
(the environment), able to make decisions that, through action, provide change in the future.

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3.1 The temporal structure of action : Past, Present, Future

The philosophy of being, developed by Martin Heidegger at the beginning of the 19th century,
has widened the proposed structure of the “observer” with the introduction of the concept of
care as connected to the temporal dimensions past, present, and future. These three
dimensions are perspectives of life, as each of them defines connected temporal periods
enclosing events and change.
As exposed in the previous sections, action makes change possible. Carl Weber16 states that
action is motivated behaviour, intending with the term “motive,” the goal of a planned action
and, at the same time, as whatever induced to undertake that particular action instead of
another one (Segre, 2000). The nature of this type of motive is rooted in the actor’s
personality, in his unconscious. Action expresses the essential features of human experience:
consciousness, choice, emergence, novelty. Action is subjective and directly dependent on
care.
In George Herbert Mead’s theory,17 action is not the result of an immediate and unthinkingly
response to a stimulus; it is rather a moment during which the individual interprets the
situation and considers various responses. This moment is called by Mead “specious present”
or “knife-edge present”(Flaherty and Fine 2001). Instead of a stimulus-response (S – R),
Mead argues in favour of a stimulus-interpretation-response (S – I – R) sequence, stressing
that the response is something that is more or less uncertain (1934: 76). Thus, “Delayed
reaction is necessary to intelligent conduct as it makes possible the exercise of intelligent and
reflective choice in the acceptance of that one among these possible alternative responses
which is to be carried into overt effect” (Mead 1934: 98-99). The sequence stimulus-
interpretation - response, presupposing action, can be described and represented by the
structure of the “observer.” In figure 3, perception (π) gives the stimulus coming from the
outside, making inferences (µ) represents interpretation, while response is the subjective
psychological and physical condition from which action derives.
This relation can be described by the following figure:

16
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (1864-1920), was a German economist, philosopher and sociologist. Along with
Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, Weber is regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. He created and
worked in the antipositivistic, hermeneutic tradition. Those works influenced the antipositivistic revolution in
social sciences, which stressed the difference between the social sciences and natural sciences, due to human
social action (which Weber differentiated into traditional, affectional, value-rational and instrumental). In
sociology, social action refers to any action that take into account the actions and reactions of other individuals.
17
George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) was an American philosopher by virtue of being, along with John Dewey,
Charles Peirce and William James, one of the founders of pragmatism. He was the primary source of the
symbolic interactionist perspective in sociology, a political progressive, and a central figure in the Chicago
School of Sociology.
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 Chapter III. TIME DISCLOSED. An Investigation of Time, Space and Being

STIMULUS RESPONSE

THEORIZATION

TIME

Figure 7: relation Stimulus, Interpretation, and Response. (Source: author’s elaboration)

The structure of action is temporally disclosed. End result of action is change, and change that

The structure of action is temporally disclosed. End result of action is change, and change that
characterizes the temporal interval defined by the succession of two events (see figure 6).
Actions take place within past, present, and future dimensions.
Following Sartre’s philosophy18 “temporality is evidently an organised structure. The three
so-called elements of time- past, present and future- should not be considered as a collection
of givens for us to sum up- for example as an infinite series of nows in which some are not yet
and others are no longer- but rather as the structured moments of an original synthesis”(Sartre
2005 reprinted:130). This means that temporality should be approached and studied as a
totality, as a continuous process defining change and creation, a continuous flowing of related
events.
In Being and Nothingness, Sartre states that “being past for an event would mean simply
being retired, losing its efficacy without losing its being”(ibid.: 132). Past has gone, but
events and change are reflected in the present as a part of it.
Following Mead’s theory, past confronts the present with an array of facts, but the effects of
these facts are mediated by attention and interpretation, which render their actual impact

18
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist,
screenwriter, political activist, biographer and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century
French philosophy, and he was influenced by Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Edmund Husserl
and Martin Heidegger. Sartre’s main idea is that we are “condemned to be free”(Sartre 1989). This theory relies
up on his atheism, and is formed using the example of the paper-knife. Sartre says that if one considered a paper-
knife, one would assume that the creator would have had a plan for it, an essence. Sartre says that human beings
have no essence before their existence because there is no Creator. Thus “existence precedes essence”(ibid.: 27).
This proposition is an essential claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the
essence or nature of a thing is more fundamental than its existence.
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uncertain; “rigorous thinking does not necessarily imply the conditioning of the present by the
past” (Mead 1932: 17).
Past gives the individual an infinite number of stimuli – the cognitive overload – among
which to select. Selection is conditioned by his power of analysis of the field of stimulation in
order to pick out a stimulus. Subsequent to selecting a stimulus, the individual must interpret
it, further defining the response. This process is a constant reinterpretation of the past from the
standpoint of the present (Flaherty and Fine, 2001: 152).
Under this point of view, past has only a behavioural and uncertain relevance in the present. It
is a resource that makes sense of the present and imagines the future.
In Mead’s philosophy, present is the paramount form of temporality, the “locus of reality,” as
he stated in his lectures on the subject of time entitled The Philosophy of the Present (1932).
The locus of reality means that the social interaction is happening now. It is in the present that
things actually happening can be observed (as opposed to recalling or anticipating them). In
his theory, present is seen as a temporal arena for the dynamics of human conduct and
experience. Mead talks about the “social act,” meaning that “the manipulatory phase of the
act is socially mediated...in acting towards objects humans simultaneously take the
perspectives of others towards that object”(Mead, 1938: 267). Human being is a product of
society, the self arising out of social experience as an object of socially symbolic gestures and
interactions (Joas, 1985: 148).
The relationship between the temporal dimensions past and present was defined by Sartre as
follows: “ This interpenetration (of past and present), which is the organisation of the past
with the present, comes ultimately from the past itself and is only a relation of habitation. The
past can certainly be conceived as being in the present, but by making it such we have
deprived ourselves of every means of portraying this immanence otherwise than as that of a
stone at the bottom of a river. The past can indeed haunt the present, it cannot be it.” (Sartre,
1943: 156).
Following Mead’s philosophy “The present is that which is going on, our experience is
always a passing experience”(Mead, 1936: 299).
If past can be found in memory, future is anticipation. It is what it might be and it refers to the
fact that our conduct can move in any one of many possible different directions. From Mead’s
perspective, future is always uncertain because it has a character that is novel and could not be
predicted in its ultimate peculiarity (Mead, 1938: 413-414).

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PRESENT
NOW
Derives from yesterday and
anticipates tomorrow

PAST
FUTURE
Has gone, but it is
is to be created.
visible in the
It is uncertain,
present.
depending on
today’s choices

Figure 8: past, present and future. (Source: author’s elaboration)

Mead affirms that present is what is happening now, while future represents everything that
could happen (1938: 650). Therefore future has a greater value, thanks to the passing of time
and further succession of change.
He distinguishes between two different phases of the future: the hypothetical future and the
immediate future. The hypothetical future is defined as the part of the experience during
which the individual considers alternative responses to the situation at hand. It is the moment
of making choice. In the immediate future alternatives chosen become real and concrete
(1938: 351). The definition of future as composed by two phases, hypothetical and immediate
ones, indicates how making choice is important as connection between present and future.
Future is in the present for the mere reason that it can depend on today’s actions and
decisions, and this is evident in planning. Urban and environmental planning should consider
the meaning of past and present in order to act for the future in specific temporal and spatial
contexts. How is it possible to do it? The answer could be by the application of the structure
of the “observer” to planning processes. This is not an easy work as it needs a deeper
investigation of the concepts of time, space, and human being as related and interconnected
by perception and experience.

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4 Time as a social experience

The human being is a social animal. His experience of time exists mainly within his relation
with other people. Sensorial perception, theorization, and decision are defined within a
context where several interacting observers exist. The passing of time phases - past, present,
and future- defines change visible in the spatial, social, political, and economical spheres.
Lucrezio in de Rerum Natura wrote that time does not exist in itself, but we become aware of
it by change around us (cited in Redondi, 2007: 34) . Time is thus a social question,
influencing several aspects of reality.
Time as a social experience has been the object of a number of sociological studies19 that have
focused the temporal character of interpersonal relations.
Blumer20 defines interpersonal relations as a “formative process” (1969: 66). In Symbolic
Interaction: Perspective and Methods, he states that “...This world is the actual group life of
human beings. It consists of what they experience and do, individually and collectively, as
they engage in their respective forms of living; it covers the large complexes of interlaced
activities that grow up as the action of some spread out to affect the actions of others... The
empirical world, in short, is the world of everyday experience, the top layers of which we see
in our lives and recognize in the lives of others”(Blumer, 1969: 35). Mead calls interpersonal
temporality a temporal process, a dynamic and open-ended flow of events (Flaherty and Fine,
2001: 157).
According to these theories, time is a social construct and shared experience (Segre, 2000:
147).
Norbert Elias21 defined social time as “a symbol of a relationship that a human group of
beings biologically endowed with the capacity for memory and synthesis, establishes between

19
Time as a socially constructed and shared experience has been the object of a number of sociological
investigations. Aspects examined have been mainly the following:
• Structures and meanings of social time (Lewis & Weigert, 1981)
• Interactional context of time perception (Denzin, 1987)
• The language of time at microsocial and macrosocial levels (Zerubavel, 1987)
• Social and cultural definition of the personal experience of time (Flaherty 1987).
20
Herbert Blumer (1900-1987) was a sociologist and a professor at the Chicago University. He coined the term
symbolic interactionism in an article on social psychology published in Man and Society in 1937. Symbolic
Interactionism means that people act toward things based on the meaning those things have for them; and these
meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation. This definition reflects a
sociological perspective influencing many areas of the discipline, in particular microsociology and social
psychology.
21
Norbert Elias (1897-1990) was a German sociologist of Jewish descent who later became a British citizen.
His work focused on the relationship between power, behavior, emotion and knowledge over time. He
significantly shaped the figurational sociology, a research tradition in which figurations of humans-evolving
networks of interdependent humans are the unit of investigation. Figurational sociology is based on the
important assumption that sociology is a process, not state.
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two or more continua of changes, one of which is used by it as a frame of reference or

standard of measurement for the other or others”(Elias, 1992: 46).
The social construction of time depends on human ability to work on the experience of
change, to give meaning to it.
Social time is an abstract constructed entity and a measure for social living. This way of
measuring differs from ancient to modern cultures. Sociological, anthropological and related
literatures on time and temporality reveal a general consensus that modern Western people
have a “linear” perspective on time and they tend to be “future-oriented.” Additionally, it is
known in the study of time in sociology and in social anthropology that members of
“primitive,” preliterate, and pre-technological cultures have a “holistic, cyclical” view of time
with a “present orientation” (TenHouten, 2005: 2). These cross-cultural differences in time
consciousness are related to cultural evolution.
In his work Time and Society, W. TenHouten, a professor of sociology at the University of
California, Los Angeles, describes a seven-attribute model of a specific kind of nonlinear,
holistic, time consciousness, to be termed patterned-cyclical (2005: 25). This model was
defined with reference to aboriginal time consciousness, and it presents the following seven
distinct aspects:
1. It is dualistic, being split into two levels of reality. They are the sacred inner reality
and the profane outer reality. In any religion there is a division of time into two
alternating parts, sacred and profane. Sacred time resides in soul, while profane is
represented by the body, that is in direct connection to the external world. In soul, all
feelings, needs, and expectations reside. It is the most intimate sphere of human
being. In aboriginal culture, the two spheres, the sacred and the profane one, are
reunited through rituals and symbols. According to the structure of the “observer,”
soul and body are connected through perception and experience of surrounding
environment. Sacred time can be defined in the cyclical process of perception,
theorization, and action depending on care. It is influenced by culture, tradition, and
background as subjectively experienced. The duality – soul and body, sacred and
profane, inner and outer time - is not foreign to the “observer.”
2. It defines a fusion of past and present by ritual interactions. In aboriginal tradition,
past and present are recalled and reunited through the ritual of telling a story on the
sand. The connection of past and present and the role this plays in planning the future,
have been remarked in the previous paragraph.

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3. It is based on heterogeneity, discontinuity and irregularity of time consciousness. This

is due to the coexistence, within the human being, of two identities, human and
animal ones, related to the sacred and the profane spheres. This duality causes
discontinuity in subjective experience of time, that is more evident when one of the
two spheres becomes dominant with respect to the other.
4. It is event-oriented. Events are not in time, rather they are time. Succession of events
defines temporal dimension as perceived through change. This concept has been
developed by the “observer.” Ian Keen, an anthropologist interested in aboriginal
cultures, defined four methods of location for an event(1994). The first one is a spatial
location. An event can be defined as being happened or happening in a specific place.
Space and time are two interconnected dimensions, the spatial location of an event
underlies this aspect. The second location is defined in terms of distance in time,
“long ago” or “ very long ago.” This recalls images coming from the past, defined by
temporal, spatial, and well-known social conditions. The third location is defined in
historical terms. It is a temporal location in a context defined by previous temporal
succession of events and change. The fourth definition locates events with reference
to human stages of life (TenHouten, 2005: 37). The above definition on event location
makes the relation space-time more evident.
5. It is cyclical, and based on overlapping and interdependent patterns and oscillations.
To live in harmony with the world is to be attuned to the rhythms, cycles and patterns
of the natural world. In this vision, country, the natural surrounding environment,
forms an essential part of human survival. Aborigines experience space by carrying
out journeys, that can involve the family or band. Regardless of its duration, these
journeys represent cycles, as well as culminate in a return to the point of origin. This
is a sort of spiritual renewal, possible just by experiencing the mythologized land. In
ancient or primitive cultures, such as aboriginal ones, existence depends on the
repetitive cycling of the seasons. This connection social life-nature, represents the
meaning of cultural evolution.
6. It is qualitative. Time is not valued for itself but as an opportunity to improve and
pursue interpersonal relationships and to enhance a feeling of well-being.
7. It derives from experience of long duration. The concept of duration can be defined
“...not static but the sustaining quality of time and therefore the actual co-existence of
past, present and future, a co-existence which does not imply simultaneity because

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succession is included in their relationship.”(Chen, 1992: 152-153). Things exist

through time, and this implies a conception of permanence; that’s duration.
The exposition of the seven aspects of the patterned-cyclical model helps in understanding
how the concept of time is basic in sociology and anthropology. The validity of the proposed
structure of the “observer” has been confirmed. The concepts introduced and organized by the
mathematical structure, exposed at the beginning of this chapter, have been enriched and
developed by philosophical, sociological, and anthropological theories. Planning is a complex
discipline, involving a great number of aspects; therefore, it must be supported by models and
frames based on multidisciplinary studies.
The patterned-cyclical model developed by TenHouten and based on his studies on aboriginal
culture has introduced the concept of duration (see point 7). As co-existence of past, present,
and future, duration expresses subjective experience of time in relation to the succession of
events. It is directly related to subjective time consciousness.
The concept of consciousness was analyzed by many sociologists and philosophers. As
introduced by the above model and clearly explained in TenHouten’s work, Time and Society,
there are four forms of time consciousness:
1. Immediate-participatory, based on the ongoing experience of the present;
2. Patterned-cyclical, as an immersion in the patterns and cycles of nature and social
life, it is often referred to “qualitative” or “cyclical” time;
3. Ordinary-linear, experience of time as measured by calendars, clocks and schedules.
Martin Heiddeger called it ordinary time (1996);
4. Episodic-futural, regarding efforts to plan for and bring about the future.
These four levels of time consciousness describe subjective time experience with regard to the
surrounding spatial environment. The unity of a) and b) engenders a natural time experience.
The unity of c) and d) engenders a rational time experience. The duality natural-rational
derives from the duality soul-body, characterizing human nature. In the next chapter, this
concept is developed in relation to Dooyeweerd’s philosophy, through an analysis of this
dichotomy and how it influences everyday’s time and space experience.
Time consciousness is basic for duration of events to be made aware of.
In Hegel’s philosophy “Spiritual life is distinguished from natural, and particularly from
animal, life in this, that it does not merely remain in itself, but for itself... what distinguishes
the spiritual from the natural is the development of consciousness, and ultimately the
selfconsciousness”(Findlay, 1958: 37). Consciousness and self-consciousness define man as
being part of a social system, as having a cultural and historical background, as being part of a

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place. They define human social and cultural identity. Consciousness is related to making
choices, thus it is related to change.
In Bergson’s philosophy, consciousness is composed of an infinite number of levels
characterized by different degrees of tension within consciousness itself. These degrees of
tensions depend on how much attention is given to specific objects or events in the
surrounding external world (Bernstein, 1999). Consciousness is a subjective aspect, due to
one’s personal social and cultural background.
According to what has been suggested on the four levels of time consciousness (page 69), this
latter is related to the concept of duration. In Bergson’s theory, the term “durée” (duration)
expresses the relation existing between time and change, as perceived and then theorized
through experience. Durée makes the flowing and succession of events continuous, like the
notes of a melody where every note extends into the next in an organic, unbroken whole.
(McLure, 2005: 13). In Bergson’s philosophy, duration is manifested at the very immediate
level of perception. As analyzed within the structure of the “observer,” pure perception is
possible only through senses. As immediate, it is not rationalized. In a second moment,
perception turns into theorization in order to form experience.
The flow of lived experience is broken down into discrete moments and subsequently
recomposed into multiple connections. Bergson states that in this phase, duration is replaced
by extension, succession by simultaneity, and quality by quantity (Bergson, 1967). This
duality characterizing the process of space and time experience is also analyzed by
Dooyeweerd in his philosophy. He states that theorization is nothing if not based on naive
experience, sensitive experience, the most immediate one. The term “naive” introduces
echoes of primitive cultures, such as aboriginal ones, and of ancient rituals celebrating the re-
union of man-environment.
Experience as time and space connected has its own meaning, that, according to Schutz’s
theory “is not an intrinsic feature of experiences, nor is it an additional experience... an
experience, while occurring does not have any meaning, only the past experiences towards
which we may turn back are meaningful...meaning is nothing else but the attitude of the
experiencing mind towards its past experiences” (Schutz, 1976: 61-62)
In order to explain the concept of meaning Schutz wrote: “Meaning entails awareness of the
experience. Its constitution implies a connection between the two fundamental levels of
conscience which involves two different attitudes and two distinct time structures. In the
durèe I live in my acts following the flux of my experiences, in the present intentionally
looking at the object of my experience and turning to the future. To grasp the experience I

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must stop and think, leave off the durèe and turn my attention in the opposite direction”
(ibid.:39). He underlies the duality perception-theorization in accordance to Bergson’s
philosophy and Dooyeweerd as well. Through meaning, this duality is reconnected in the
temporal dimension.
The concept of meaning is further analyzed more deeply with reference to Dooyeweerd’s
philosophy.
Meaning as the capacity to relate perception to theorization and past to present in order to
plan for the future is based on subjective and collective memory. Elias defines time as ”... a
symbol of a relationship that a human group of beings biologically endowed with the capacity
for memory and synthesis, establishes between two or more continua of changes, one of
which is used by it as a frame of reference or standard of measurement for the other or others”
(Elias, 1992: 46).
Under this point of view, the social construction of time depends on a specific human ability
to work on the experience of change, to react, to organize, and to confer meaning on the
experience. The social perception of time is to be connected to the concept of time as a lived
experience, as already demonstrated above.
The word “memory” in everyday and scientific language refers to a vast set of phenomena
that is not completely homogeneous.
In a more common sense, memory is taken to mean the human faculty of preserving certain
traces of past experiences and having access to these through recall (Jedlowski, 2001: 29).
In the course of the 20th century, the common concept of memory has changed. The model of
memory as a “store” of traces of the past, as predicted by Saint Augustine, has been
completely overturned and reformulated.
Traditionally, human memory has been seen as an archive from which specific items can be
retrieved in the process of remembering.
Contemporary thought conceives memory not as a store, but as a plurality of interrelated
functions, a complex network of activities that does not remain one and the same (ibid.: 30),
but is constantly selected, filtered, and restructured in terms set by the questions and
necessities of the present, at both the individual and the social level.
The concept of memory, deeply studied by many sociologists, has been described following
the duality individual - collective memory. These issues are closely interconnected but, at the
same time, partially distinct.
The social aspect of individual memory was firstly analyzed by C. Bartlett in the 1930s. He
stated two principles:

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1) Memories are social to the extent that they codify perceptions on the basis of
their meanings;
2) The recollections that individuals have of a certain event are influenced by the
others’ recollections of those same events, hence recall is constituted and
stabilised within a network of social relationships.
Another sociologist who analyzed the social aspect of individual memory was Maurice
Halbwachs. According to his theory, each individual memory is inscribed within “social
frameworks,” which support it and give it meaning (ibid.: 31). These social frameworks of
memory are expressed and reproduced through language and discourse. The narrated
recollections tend to be organized around temporal references provided by the social context;
social chronologies, and those of personal experience are, as a rule, in a state of tension,
mutually sustaining each other; the way they interweave varies according to the degree to
which the individual is integrated into a group or a society as a whole (Cavalli, 1985).
David Bakhurst, referring to the Soviet theorist of language, V. N. Voloshinov, claimes: ”To
remember is always to give a reading of the past, a reading which requires linguistic skills
derived from the traditions of explanation and story – telling within a culture and which issues
in a narrative that owes its meaning ultimately, to the interpretative practices of a community
of speakers. This is true even when what is remembered is one’s own past experience....the
mental image of the past....becomes a phenomenon of consciousness only when clothed with
words, and these owe their meaning to social practices of communication” (Bakhurst, 1990:
203-226).
Language is the means of shared memories. In the theory of Modal Aspects developed by
Hermann Dooyeweerd and exposed in the next chapter, language is a constitutive aspect of
the communicative modality. Through language, meaning is carried through symbols.
Through communication, subjective memory turns into collective one.
As Halbwachs noted (1997), collective memory permits cohesion of a social group by
guaranteeing its identity.
Memory is related to identity, at the individual and collective level. In modern days, the
expectations for the future increasingly differ radically from past experience as time is
“accelerated” and change in material environments becomes constant. This opens the way to
an awareness of a particularly acute distinction between the present, past, and future
(Koselleck, 1979). Past becomes “lost time” par excellence, leading to a specifically historical
knowledge and to the growth of such feeling as nostalgia at the same time.

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Kevin Lynch in 1959 wrote that “the very word -lost- in our language means much more than
simple geographical uncertainty...In the process of way finding, the strategic link is the
environmental image, the generalized mental picture of the exterior physical world that is held
by an individual. This image is the product both of immediate sensation and of the memory of
past experience, and it is used to interpret information and to guide action”(Lynch, 1959:4).
Memory is identity, and identity is spatial and temporal orientation.

5 Conclusions and further work

The proposed analysis of time, related to space and social life, is an attempt to go further, to
look behind the mere definitions of this term that so many scientists have proposed in their
works.
In order to be considered a valid parameter in evaluating and planning processes, time must
be “concretized” and structured in a frame. The structure of the “observer,” derived from
mathematical studies, plays a relevant role in this chapter. It represents a useful and rational
way to explain the experiencing process of surrounding environment, characterizing everyday
life. Within this formal and rational structure, the relationship between human being and
environment is defined in the duality - sensitive perception – theorization. The connection of
soul with body is described as a continuous alternation of needs/desires and the external
influences, as the main cause for action and change. Through the introduction of philosophical
and sociological theories on time, the structure of the “observer” is enriched by coming to
surface of new related aspects.
The two questions proposed at the beginning of this chapter haven’t found an answer yet, but
new elements will orient the research.
Over what space and over what time is sustainability to be achieved? This question encloses
the mystery of life, a universe to be investigated.
This chapter indicates a direction by fixing some concepts that are going to be further
developed:
• Time and space are deeply related; they cannot be fully analyzed if considered as
separate entities.
• Experience is a continuous process defined by two connected phases. These phases re
sensitive perception and theorization.

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• Through experience, the human being becomes aware of time through the succession
of events; time consciousness is depending on the physical changes occurring in the
surrounding spatial environment.
• Awareness of temporal succession past and present, related to the surrounding
changing environment, together with the subjective sphere of needs and expectations
(Heidegger’s care), leads to action, to a “conditioned” planning for the future. This is
called time consciousness.
• Meaning and time consciousness are connected by memory. They form the subjective
and collective identity, useful in spatial temporal and social orientation.

The above aspects are analyzed in the next chapter with reference to Hermann Dooyeweerd’s
philosophy. An underpinning in his modal theory will be useful in verifying the validity of the
“observer.” The aim of this research, as exposed in the previous chapters, is an attempt to
build a frame, based on the Cosmic Modal Order proposed by Dooyeweerd.
From the proposed analysis of time, space and being, the important concept of identity has
emerged as related to orientation (spatial and temporal as well). Words written by Kevin
Lynch and quoted at the end of the previous paragraph, indicate that planning must not
preclude from social identity, thus it must not preclude from time. Sustainable planning deals
with space and time as they are field for social action. What does sustainable time and space
mean? What kind of frame should be built in order to achieve sustainable planning? In the
next chapter the thesis is going to analyze these questions under the light of Dooyeweerd’s
philosophy in order to try to find a possible answer to these and previous questions.

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