About this ebook
Shedding new light on the fundamental philosophical problem of time, leading Italian philosopher Giacomo Marramao offers a solution to today's 24/7 culture.
If we were asked to name the social syndrome of our age under capitalism, it would no doubt be rush. Intentional animals as we are, we experience the meaningless acceleration of time, which devours instants and misses its target just like its opposite, undue hesitation. For Marramao, rush and slowness or rashness and hesitation are two mirror forms of untimeliness: two unsuitable ways of seizing time.
Through engagement with sources including Heidegger, Bergson, Saint Paul the Apostle, Newtonian physics, and postmodern theory, Marramao calls for a change to how we perceive time. Delving into the Greek and Roman concepts of tempus, chronos, and aión, he argues that there should be no opposition between the scientific-objective time and the existential-subjective one. As such, he introduces his own theory of kairós, or due time, as the notion of fertile and decisive timeliness. A timely decision, Marramao advances, is generated by the productive tension between opposites: a tension created equally by swiftness and caution, promptness and conformity with the action's purpose.
Originally published in 1992, this updated edition of Kairós: In Defence of Due Time'' includes a new preface speaking to today's social and political climate, as well as an introduction by Marramao himself, in which he reflects on his long engagement with temporality from Power and Secularization up until today.
If we were asked to name the social syndrome of our age under capitalism, it would no doubt be rush. Intentional animals as we are, we experience the meaningless acceleration of time, which devours instants and misses its target just like its opposite, undue hesitation. For Marramao, rush and slowness or rashness and hesitation are two mirror forms of untimeliness: two unsuitable ways of seizing time.
Through engagement with sources including Heidegger, Bergson, Saint Paul the Apostle, Newtonian physics, and postmodern theory, Marramao calls for a change to how we perceive time. Delving into the Greek and Roman concepts of tempus, chronos, and aión, he argues that there should be no opposition between the scientific-objective time and the existential-subjective one. As such, he introduces his own theory of kairós, or due time, as the notion of fertile and decisive timeliness. A timely decision, Marramao advances, is generated by the productive tension between opposites: a tension created equally by swiftness and caution, promptness and conformity with the action's purpose.
Originally published in 1992, this updated edition of Kairós: In Defence of Due Time'' includes a new preface speaking to today's social and political climate, as well as an introduction by Marramao himself, in which he reflects on his long engagement with temporality from Power and Secularization up until today.
Shedding new light on the fundamental philosophical problem of time, leading Italian philosopher Giacomo Marramao offers a solution to today's 24/7 culture.
If we were asked to name the social syndrome of our age under capitalism, it would no doubt be rush. Intentional animals as we are, we e...
About the author
Giacomo Marramao is Professor of Political and Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Rome III, Italy and Director of the Fondazione Basso. His publications available in English include The Passage West: Philosophy After the Age of the Nation-State (2012), Against Power: For an Overhaul of Critical Theory (2016), Interregnum: Between Biopolitics and Posthegemony (2020) and The Bewitched World of Capital Economic Crisis and the Metamorphosis of the Political (2023).
Giacomo Marramao is Professor of Political and Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Rome III, Italy and Director of the Fondazione Basso. His publications available in English include The Passage West: Philosophy After the Age of the Nation-State (2012), Against Power: For an Overhaul of C...
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
