ABSTRACT
What are the roots of our construal of time? The chapter argues that the existential relevance and true essence of time is anchored in the body. This is particularly true for us self-conscious creatures. We know that all is going to end, at least as we know it. Space, and in particular, embodied space is the matrix of it all. Staring at the hourglass, I do not see time, I just see movements and other dynamic events in space, nothing else. We may perceive the dynamic of such events in music or in the subjective experience of any event duration. We may perceive the way events unfold from beginning to end, the fact, for example, that waiting in line may feel endless or a weekend with a lover may seem to fly by fast. But time in itself, as an objectified and measurable concept, can only be derived in reference to space in general and bodily space in particular. As we have seen, we can only precisely measure and talk about time in spatial terms. As Bergson writes, it is difficult to escape our spatial obsession. It is also difficult to escape the fact that our embodied self will eventually disappear. For us, time is finite, linked to the transformation and disappearance of the body in space.
