Abstract: If we reduce time to an a priori form of human intuition as Kant did, and if we think that time is nothing in itself and outside of the human subject, then how can we make sense of the age and history of earth or of the universe – a history going back far beyond the emergence of humanity? The issue to be decided is whether this objection can be raised against Kant without being guilty of anachronism, and to consider the possible answers that could be formulated. After considering the ideality of time, the aporias of the subjectivity of time and the idea of an indefiniteness of time as elaborated in the First Antinomy, this paper argues for the need to reassess the thesis of the absolute reality of time.
© Walter de Gruyter 2012