Time and Freedom

294 Pages·2014·1.74 MB·English

by  Christophe Bouton

Time and Freedom
Northwestern University
Studies in Phenomenology
and
Existential Philosophy
Founding Editor †James M. Edie
General Editor Anthony J. Steinbock
Associate Editor John McCumber

T i M E A N d
F r E E d o M
Christophe Bouton
Translated from the French by Christopher Macann
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
English translation by Christopher Macann copyright © 2014 by Northwestern
University Press, with the support of the Institut Universitaire de France. Pub-
lished 2014. Originally published by Presses Universitaires de Toulouse in 2007
as Temps et liberté; copyright © 2008 Presses Universitaires du Mirail (Toulouse,
France). All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Bouton, Christophe, author.
[Temps et liberte. English]
Time and freedom / Christophe Bouton ; translated from the French by
Christopher Macann.
pages cm.—(Northwestern University studies in phenomenology and
existential philosophy)
“Originally published by Presses Universitaires de Toulouse in 2007 as Temps
et liberte.”—Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8101- 3016- 6 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978- 0- 8101- 3015- 9 (pbk. :
alk. paper)—ISBN 978- 0- 8101- 6813- 8 (ebook)
1. Time—Philosophy. 2. Liberty. I. Macann, Christopher E., translator.
II. Title. III. Series: Northwestern University studies in phenomenology &
existential philosophy.
BD638.B69513 2014
115—dc21
2014027041
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48- 1992.
Contents
Preface to the American Edition ix
Note on Citations, Translations, and Abbreviations xi
introduction 3
Part 1. The Tree of Possibilities
1 Whether the Future is Necessary (Leibniz) 19
2 Three Kantian Solutions to the Problem of Pre- determinism 41
3 The Wheel of Time (Schopenhauer) 73
Part 2. The Plasticity of Time
4 The Time of decision (Schelling) 89
5 The Moment (Kierkegaard) 121
6 decision for Temporality (Heidegger) 141
Part 3. The mystery of the Future
7 Time as the Source of Freedom (Bergson) 189
8 Freedom at the root of Time (Sartre) 209
9 The Fecundity of Time (Levinas) 231
Conclusion 251
Notes 259
Bibliography 271
index 281

Preface to the American Edition
This book is the translation of a slightly modified version of my work
Temps et liberté, published by Presses Universitaires de Toulouse in 2007.
It is both a work in the history of philosophy, one that seeks to study the
emergence of a question across a series of thinkers stemming from the
so- called continental tradition (German and French for the most part)
and which, at the same time, (or so the author hopes) represents a work
of philosophy, to the extent that it attempts, across its analyses, to bring
answers to the question of the relation of time and freedom, answers
summed up in the conclusion. I am grateful to Thomas Ruble for his
remarks on the translations of Schelling and to Christopher Macann,
who put his talents as a philosopher and a translator into the service of
this publishing venture, a task all the more delicate in that it refers to a
very wide range of schools and terminologies. I am also very grateful to
Anthony Steinbock for the honor of accepting this text in the SPEP series
of Northwestern University Press.
ix