just received: Nils B. Thelin: On the Nature of Time A Biopragmatic Perspective on Language, Thought, and Reality

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On the Nature of Time 
A Biopragmatic Perspective on Language, Thought, and Reality
By Nils B. Thelin
Uppsala, Sweden, 2014
Hardback: 480 pp., illus. 
Acta Universitatis Upsaliennsis - Studia Slavica Upsaliensia 48.
Hardback £ 65.00

This book is a synthesis of more than three decades of research into the concept of time and
 its semiotic nature. If traditional philosophy – and philosophy of time should be no exception
 – in the shadow of advancing biology can be said to have reached an impasse, one important
 reason for this, in harmony with Wittgenstein’s vision, appears to have been its lack of
 appropriate tools for explicating language. The present theory of time proceeds, accordingly,
 from the exploration of temporal expressions in language as an evolutionary fact. It derives
 in a hypothetical, coherent feedback process of hierarchically ordered distinctions the semantics
 of time from its biologically dictated perceptual and cognitive-pragmatic origins. The corresponding 
abductive-regulative model is anchored in the assumption of biological rhythmization as the very
 foundation of perception and mental/physical action. Under- stood to originate in space and 
spatial perspective, time reveals itself as an instrument for temporal perspective on motion
 (events and situations) in a process of analysis, i.e., discontinuation of chaos made divisible
 and continuous by the rhythmical screen. Whereas tradition- al philosophy of time paid 
attention almost exclusively to the temporal category of tense , the biopragmatic model 
sees strong evidence in the perspectival nature of time for ascribing the decisive, and 
probably universal, role in temporal analysis to the linguistic category of aspect . 
Aspect may, according to the present findings, be assumed to partake already of 
change- of-state and cause-effect analysis without which man’s adaptation to new 
situations – and precondition for survival – would be inconceivable. The proposed 
model of space/time cogni-tion, inspired by Hegelian dialectics, Heidegger-Gadamer’s
 hermeneutic circle and Peircean logic, makes Kantian a priori superfluous and liberates
 time from its enigmatic appearance. For the first time in temporal studies it thus appears
 possible to derive hypothetically linguistic expressions of time all the way from pre-temporal,
 homogeneous continuity effected by biological rhythmization, via pre-temporal metonymic
 (Gestalt), chunk-wise partitioning – as a general precondition for the perception and, based
 on primary metaphorization, the cognition of things, space and motion – to temporal
 analysis/discontinuation proper, primarily by aspectual perspective, and the subsequent 
synthesized, heterogeneous continuity of temporally ordered events. The conception of
 time, so disastrous for modern temporal logic, i.e., as moving object assigned extension, 
divisible continuity ( ‛ linearity’) and direction, can be shown to have emerged as a result 
of secondary metaphorization

CONTENTS: 
Preface.... 13 Acknowledgements .. 23 1 
Knowledge, perspective, and cognitive-linguistic intersubjectivity: An introduction to the phi losophical background....... 27 1.1 
Time, cognitive-pragmatic linguistics, and the New Paradigm in philosophy ......... 27 1.2 
Overcoming the static extremes of idealism vs. realism and rationalism vs. empiricism: from Kant to hierarchical-processual models of interaction............ 30 1.3 
Holism, coherence, and abduction: cognitive-linguistic processing vs. autonomous conceptualization ......... 35 1.4 ‛ 
Critical’ (internal) vs. ‛ direct’ (external) realism............. 42 1.5 
Hegel’s ‛ dialectical movement’ as precursor of cognitive processing and its potential invalidation of the idealism-realism controversy .......... 45 1.6 
Hierarchy, process, and subject-object interaction in Hegel’s dialectic, and the pivotal role of circular feedback in Gadamer’s philosophy of hermeneutics .. 48 1.7 
Hegel’s conceptual absolutism as a reflection of cognitive- linguistic universality, and the new absolutism of Apel’s transcendental pragmatics of language .. 50 1.8 
The growing inadequacy of the idealism-realism opposition, and traditional metaphysics in the light of Hegel’s anticipation of abductive epistemology53 1.9 
Searle’s ‛ external realism’ and his objectivist interpretation of perspective........ 55 1.10 
A hierarchical reinterpretation of Popper’s ‛ three worlds’, and the decline of ʽanti-psychologism’.. 57 1.11 
Analytical vs. synthetical knowledge, philosophy of language, and the implications of Zinkernagel’s Conditions for Description for an abductive epistemology.... 59 1.12 
Quine’s holism as a first step away from language-philosophical positivism ............ 65 1.13 
The symbiosis of cognition and physical/linguistic action in the holistic model of know ledge and reality................ 67 1.14 
The legacy of Frege’s static-positivist philosophy of language and knowledge, and the flaws of Dummett’s objectivist theory of meaning: the need for inter action between subjective and intersubjective knowledge – and fo r a new concept of truth... 69 1.15 
Conceptual schemes and the distinction between culture- dependent and culture-independent reason: Putnam’s pragmatic realism in the light of hierarchical-processual interaction and the perspectival correlation of subjec tive and intersubjective knowledge ..... 72 1.16 Subjectivity-intersubjectivity cooperation as a dilemma or a possibility: Davidson vs. Mead ............. 77 1.17 
Rorty’s pragmatism: knowledge (truth) as a matter of justification through ‛ social practices’, the dismissal of subjective perspective, and the lack of a cognitive-linguistic basis for intersubjectivity.... 79 1.18 
Toward an integration of subjective and intersubjective knowledge in coherent models of hi erarchical-processu al (circular) interdependence ... 83 1.19 
The philosophy of language a nd cognition, and the programmatic basis of Artificial Intelligence and cognitive science: interrelated developments ....... 85 1.20 
Summary ..... 87 2 

Space and time cognition from an evolutionary point of view. 91 2.1 
Interrelations of spatial and tem poral perspective in the light of biological, societal, and linguistic evolution.......... 91 2.2 
Implications of Lorenz’s phylogenetic interpretation of Kantian a priori: a critical discussion... 95 2.3 The hypothetical evolution of space and time cognition. 102 2.4 
Endogenous rhythmization, continuity vs. discontinuity in the perceptual-cognitive processing of space and time, and the nature of ‛ consciousness’ .. 105 2.5 
Summary ..... 114 3

 Biopragmatism, cognitive processing of spatial/temporal perspective, and the sense of language....... 117 3.1 
Teleology, natural selection, and language semiosis in a pragmatic framework......... 117 3.2 Abduction and perception, perspectival variety and rule selection .. 120 3.3 
Circular feedback processing, neurobiology, and continuity ........... 125 3.4 
Andersen’s conception of cyclicity, and the working of the coherent model .. 128 3.5 
The modified role of abduction in language change....... 130 3.6 
Itkonen’s discrete model ............... 132 3.7 
The problem of hierarch ical-processual ordering............ 133 3.8 
Toward a reinterpretati on of Gestalt perception.............. 136 3.9 
>From biological survival to te mporal perspective on situations and events .......... 142 3.10 Change-of-state, cause-effect, and aspectual perspective in the individuation of events....... 144 3.11 
Space/time cognition, grammar, and biological rhythmization ...... 147 3.12 
Time in philosophy and physics, and the aspectual renewal of temporal studies . 151 3.13 Abductive hypotheses in the perception of events, and the assignment of aspectual perspective .... 158 3.14 
The distinction between ‛ final’ and ‛ efficient’ causation: toward a hierarchical-processual alternative ... 162 3.15 
Trevarthen’s theory of motives and the biopragmatic sense of language ............ 165 3.16 Summary and The space/time model in outline............ 169 4 
Motion, time, and temporal metaphor in the light of the history of philosophy .............. 175 4.1 The ‛ enigma’ of time.... 175 4.2 
Time as perspective...... 176 4.3 
The spatial origin of time, and Bhartrari’s ‛ four views’.. 181 4.4 
The metaphorical nature of time ... 185 4.5 
McTaggart, Prior, and the metaphor of ‛ moving time’... 189 4.6 
Motion and time in the history of philosophy 194 4.6.1 
Heraclitus.............. 194 4.6.2 
The Eleatics.......... 199 4.6.3 
Protagoras’ homo mensura principle...... 202 4.6.4 
The paradoxes of Zeno .......... 204 4.6.5
 Plato ..... 211 4.6.6 
Aristotle................ 212 4.6.7 
Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume....... 214 4.6.8
 Kant ..... 217 4.7 
Peirce on continuity and time ........ 222 4.8
 Summary ..... 23 5 
------------------------------
The category of verbal aspect and Peirce’s theory of signs.... 237 5.1 
Language as a system of sign operation......... 237 5.2 
On the cognitive-pragmatic nature of Peirce’s interpretant ............. 239 5.3 
Peirce’s logic of action and the development of functional grammar ............ 240 5.4 
On the status of iconicity in the category of aspect......... 242 5.5 
Aspect as temporal perspective: the distinction between symbol and index ........... 244 5.6 Toward a cognitive-pragmatic model of aspect.............. 245 5.7 
Summary ..... 248 6 
Time and empathy: the Other’s perspective on change, and Husserl’s phenomenology ...... 251 
Summary ........... 256 7 
The reality of tense, causality-time interdependence, and the shortcomings of traditional temporal logic............... 257 
Summary ........... 266 8 
Prerequisites for a theory of aspect and tense in narration...... 269 8.1 
Time, eternity, and the definite-indefinite distinction..... 269 8.2 
In the footsteps of St. Augustine ... 272 8.2.1 
The physical and psychical ontology of time.......... 273 8.2.2 
Time as measure: mental extension, motion and duration ........ 274 8.2.3 
The remaining discord between Augustine’s ‟ mental extension” and cognitive-pragmatic (aspectual) conditions of time .. 275 8.2.4 
Aspectual delimitation and time as relative measure ................ 276 8.2.5 
Time as duration of motion between states and the aspectual distinction +/–TOTALITY ............. 277 8.3 
The perceptual-cognitive hierarchy of matter, space, and time: localist prerequisites for a theory of aspect and tense........... 278 8.4 
The hypothetical development of temporal distinctions. 280 8.4.1 
Primitive features of time: concreteness, cyclicity, delimitation ... 280 8.4.2 
Preaspectual perspectival differentiation in terms of wholes and parts and the cognitive distinction between past and present time ............... 281 8.4.3 
The pre-aspectual concept of totality: from temporal quantification to temporal qualification........... 282 8.4.4 
The preaspectual concept of partiality: the essence of ‛ processuality’............... 283 8.4.5 The distribution of preaspectua l perspective, the rise of the past-present distinction, and temporalization as the genesis of aspect proper . 284 8.4.6 
>From preaspectual definiteness vs. indefiniteness to the superordinate aspectual distinction time-relatedness vs. non-time- relatedness .... 284 8.4.7 
The rise of tense distinctions . 285 8.4.8 
The hypothetical development of temporal distinctions: Summary of its cognitive-genetic stages (conceived as a process of increasing complexity with considerable over-lap).......... 286 8.4.9 
The Indo-European trichotomy aorist-present-imperfect ......... 287 8.4.10 
The universal nature of the aspect distinction time- relatedness vs. non-time-relatedness................ 287 8.5. 
Modern aspectology and Bergson’s philosophy of time292 8.6
 Summary ..... 293 9 
Aspect, tense or, taxis? – The meaning of the perfect reconsidered ........ 295 
Summary ........... 306 10 
The semantico-syntax of situational-perspectival analysis: the aspectual essence of German als , wenn , während.... 309 
Summary ........... 317 11 
Appendix: A discussion of method and theory in temporal research .... 323 11.1 Preliminaries............... 323 11.2 
Evans’ lexical approach to the structure of time........... 323 11.2.1 
Perception........... 325 11.2.2 
Space and motion 326 11.2.3 
Subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and perspective..... 329 11.2.4 
Tense .. 329 11.2.5 
The Complex Temporal Sequence Model: tense and taxis ..... 331 11.2.6 
Aspect333 11.2.7 
Evans’ lexical concepts (senses) of time and their methodological background ............ 334 11.2.8
Interrelations of duration and change... 335 11.2.9 
Criteria for lexical-semantic analysis... 337 11.2.10 
The Sanctioning Duration Sense......... 337 11.2.11 
The Moment Sense ............ 340 11.2.12 
The Instance Sense ............ 342 11.2.13 
The Event Sense ................ 343 11.2.14 
The Matrix Sense ............... 347 11.2.15 
The Agentive Sense ........... 351 11.2.16 
The Measurement-system Sense and the Commodity Sense ............. 354 11.2.17 
Models for time. 356 11.2.18 
Physical and cognitive views of time. 363 11.3 
Summary ... 363 12 
Conclusions ....... 367 
Bibliography .......... 377 
Index of figures ...... 395
 Index of proper names............ 397
 Index of languages . 402 
Index of topics ....... 403

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