Senses of Time: From the Future via the Present to the Past (and Back Again)

The main purpose of this paper is to reflect on the concept of ‘time’ in general and the concept of ‘the future’ in particular. To this end, the analysis focuses on central issues raised by Gerard Delanty in his recent work on competing and conflicting ideas of the future in the contemporary world. To narrow the scope of the investigation, ten key issues are examined. Each issue is addressed in two steps: first, by elucidating the problem in question; and, second, by discussing controversial matters arising from it. Rather than simply reconstructing Delanty’s position, this article critically engages with the most salient limitations of his account and puts forward constructive proposals for overcoming them. Building on the principal arguments scrutinized in the course of this inquiry, the final part of the paper sketches the contours of a critical theory of time, which is organized around the antinomy between ‘the timeless’ and ‘the temporal’. It posits that critical theory is viable only to the extent that it recognizes and explores the temporal constitution of the natural/objective, social/normative, and experiential/subjective dimensions of the human condition – and, by implication, commits to temporalizing the human condition itself.