The flesh: conceptualizing time and memory in the digital world

Abstract

The paper aims at developing an account of time-consciousness that can integrate embodied experience and the materiality it is embedded in. Following Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his concept of the flesh of time, I will present an alternative to idealist and materialist theories of time. A concept of time, that can integrate the complex structures of bodily and technological relations, can account for the changes in memory formation brought about by technology. By going step by step through classic concepts of time of both the continental and the analytical tradition, I will show how the concepts gradually change from purely subjective or idealist accounts (Kant, Husserl, McTaggart) to more and more materialist accounts (Mellor, Hansen, Stiegler). Still the experiential aspects of embodied cognition and memory formation play no central role. Therefore, Merleau-Ponty's concept of the flesh of time will be introduced as a means to understand the generalized sensibility that comes with digital technology. This concept will not replace a differentiated account of time-consciousness and memory formation. It rather aims at bridging the gap between human experience and the material (technological) base. Thus, it can account for the fundamental changes in the construction of memory as we experience it in the digital age.