UDC

115+179

Authors

Aleksandr A. Minchenko
Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Science; ul. Kirova 86, Novosibirsk, 630102, Russian Federation;
e-mail: nsk.minas@gmail.com

Abstract

This article deals with the philosophical study of the relationship between time and the moral life of a person. This relationship has a long history and occupied the minds of many Russian philosophers. The paper describes two fundamentally different attitudes toward time as a value: firstly, as a property, and, secondly, as a gift. The more a person is aware of the fact that time is not his property, the more he is moral in his actions. If a person realizes that time is given to him, it means that he is responsible for treating this time right. The attitude toward time as a gift is revealed in “The Parable of the Talents”. Four key points of the parable are identified in the framework of the problem under study. Particular attention is paid to the issue of eternity, including the understanding of the concept of paradise and hell, within the framework of the question of temporal foundations of a person’s moral life. In addition, the phenomenon of an individual’s focusing on the past, present and future, which largely determines human behaviour, was is studied in detail. As a result of the research, a conclusion was made about the complex structure of the relationship between time and morality. Relatively speaking, the more a person’s action contains the eternal, the more his time changes in the direction of eternity. Consequently, if qualitative attitude toward time determines a person’s moral life, then a person’s moral actions change the quantitative aspect of his time perception.

Keywords

category of time, moral life, temporal foundations of morality

References

1. Plato. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy v odnom tome [Complete Works in 1 Vol.]. Moscow, 2015. 1311 p.
   
2. Aristotle. Sochineniya v chetyrekh tomakh [Works in 4 Vols.]. Moscow, 1981. Vol. 3. 613 p.
   
3. Plotinus. Enneady: v 2 t. [Enneads: In 2 Vols.]. Kiev, 1995–1996.
   
4. Saint Augustine. Ispoved’ [Confessions]. St. Petersburg, 2013. 373 p.
   
5. Thomas Aquinas. Summa teologii [Summa Theologica]. Moscow, 2007. Pt. 1. 655 p.
   
6. Leibniz G.W. Sochineniya: v 4 t. [Works: in 4 Vols.]. Moscow, 1982. Vol. 1. 636 p.
   
7. Kant I. Sochineniya: v 6 t. [Works: in 6 Vols.]. Moscow, 1964. Vol. 2. 510 p.
   
8. Heiddegger M. Bytie i vremya [Being and Time]. Moscow, 1997. 452 p.
   
9. Zubets O.P. Temporal’nye osobennosti nravstvennoy zhizni (tsennostnaya regulyatsiya i sotsial’no-istoricheskoe vremya): dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Temporal Features of Moral Life (Value Regulation and Socio-Historical Time): Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. Moscow, 1984. 195 p.
   
10. Spirina P.Yu. Ontologicheskie printsipy kontseptualizatsii vremeni: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Ontological Principles of Time Conceptualization: Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. St. Petersburg, 2009. 172 p.
    
11. Ilivitskaya L.G. Vremya i khronotip: novye podkhody i ponyatiya: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Time and Chronotype: New Approaches and Сoncepts: Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. Saransk, 2011. 159 p.
    
12. Arkhangel’skiy G.A. Taym-menedzhment v sisteme upravleniya organizatsiey: dis. … kand. ekon. nauk [Time Management in the Organization Management System: Cand. Econ. Sci. Diss.]. Moscow, 2005. 133 p.
    
13. Koval’chuk S.A. Istoricheskoe vremya, spontannost’ i poryadok kak gnoseologicheskie kategorii: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Historical Time, Spontaneity and Order as Epistemological Categories: Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. Perm, 2004. 112 p.
    
14. Smolina A.N. Oppozitsiya “vremya-vechnost’” kak konstitutivnyy element kul’tury: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [The “Time–Eternity” Opposition as a Constituent Element of Culture: Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. Volgograd, 2003. 156 p.
    
15. Krasil’nikova M.B. Problema sootnosheniya vremeni i vechnosti v russkoy dukhovnoy kul’ture rubezha XIX–XX vv.: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [The Problem of Correlation of Time and Eternity in Russian Spiritual Culture at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. Barnaul, 2004. 161 p.
    
16. Zima V.N. Kategorii vremeni i vechnosti v srednevekovoy filosofii: Vostochnaya patristika II–VIII vv.: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [The Categories of Time and Eternity in Medieval Philosophy: Eastern Patristics of the 2nd – 8th Centuries: Cand. Philos. Sci. Diss.]. Moscow, 2008. 203 p.
    
17. Kapitsa S.P. Ob uskorenii istoricheskogo vremeni [Historical Time: Acceleration Thereof]. Novaya i noveyshaya istoriya, 2004, no. 6, pp. 3–16.