Capital Times
Tales from the Conquest of Time
Capital Times analyzes the social and political processes involved in conceptions of time in ancient and medieval tradition and sets them in the context of contemporary political and philosophical debates centering on the thought of Kant and Marx. Witty and learned, Alliez’s ambitious work forces us to reevaluate the philosophical and historical status of time in Western culture.
Alliez, who teaches philosophy in Paris and Rio de Janeiro, has written a witty and fundamental examination of the social and political construction of time by showing how the conceptions of time inherited from our ancient and medieval traditions are extension of social space as well as a protracted range of interdepending events. This ambitious work is a wonder to read. Highly recommended for general readers of philosophy and social theory.
The Reader’s Review
Time is money, Benjamin Franklin once said, and in a highly original reading of European philosophy, Éric Alliez shows us how true this adage is. A history of the philosophy of time, and a comparison of ways of conceiving the temporal, this book is nothing less than an attempt to unravel the theoretical frameworks that have given time its shape in Western civilization.
Capital Times analyzes the social and political processes involved in conceptions of time in ancient and medieval tradition and sets them in the context of contemporary political and philosophical debates centering on the thought of Kant and Marx. Witty and learned, Alliez’s ambitious work forces us to reevaluate the philosophical and historical status of time in Western culture.
Alliez, who teaches philosophy in Paris and Rio de Janeiro, has written a witty and fundamental examination of the social and political construction of time by showing how the conceptions of time inherited from our ancient and medieval traditions are extension of social space as well as a protracted range of interdepending events. This ambitious work is a wonder to read. Highly recommended for general readers of philosophy and social theory.
The Reader’s Review
Alliez’s book is a timely reminder both of the force and complexity of a Marxist conception of history, and of what it leaves unthought: ‘the unimaginable touch of time.’
Radical Philosophy
