C. Debru

The Archival Center of Philosophy, History and Scientific Publications of the Higher School

Philosophers as well as psychologists, physiologists and psychiatrists have long been interested in temporal duration (temporality). This article presents an overview, the purpose of which is to demonstrate the value of philosophical ideas about the nature of time in relation to neurophysiology, neuropsychology and psychiatry. It consists of four parts. The first sets out the views of W. James and E. Husserl on anticipation. The second part deals with a still unpublished article by the famous French neurophysiologist P. Buser, and is devoted to physiological mechanisms of anticipating movements. The third and fourth parts examine the relationship between phenomenology and psychiatry, starting with the work of E. Minkowski – ”Lived Time” – and ending with contemporary works on the perception of time in mental illness (especially schizophrenia). In conclusion, the author asks what is time, whether it is connected with the content of an experienced event, is it a fundamental atemporal framework of mental life, or one and the other.

Keywords: temporality, atemporality, time perception, anticipation