ETHICS AND AESTHETICS OF THE INSTANT IN THE DIGITAL AGE
In the constant flow of time, there is a moment that is always with us, but that often seems elusive to us: the present.
This fleeting instant, this "now" that is always here but that we can never retain, is the focus of this essay on the ethics and aesthetics of the present.
Our experience of the world is inevitably anchored in the present moment, but the nature of this "now" is profoundly paradoxical. How can we conceive of an instant that is both eternal and ephemeral?
How can we make ethical decisions or make aesthetic judgments in a moment that seems to disappear as soon as we try to capture it?
These and other questions are the ones that, from multiple perspectives, this book aims to explore.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 6
THE PERCEPTION OF THE PRESENT: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 10
1.1. Learning to perceive 13
1.2. Reality and its subjective interpretation 19
1.3. The present as an isolated instant: possibilities and limitations 25
1.4 The technological revolution of the present: A journey into the future of temporal perception 30
ONTOLOGY OF THE INSTANT: REALITY OR ILLUSION IN THE TEMPORAL FLOW? 35
2.1. Philosophical conceptualizations of the instant. 39
2.1.1. Classical and medieval perspectives 39
2.1.2. Modern and contemporary visions 46
2.1.3. Crisis of classical logical conceptions of the instant 52
2.2. The tension between subjective perception and objective existence 68
2.2.1. The phenomenological experience of the instant 68
2.2.2. Scientific models of time and the instant 73
2.2.3. Reconciliation of subjective and objective perspectives 77
2.3. Theories of time and their influence on the conception of the instant. 82
2.3.1. Presentist vs. eternalist theories 83
2.3.2. Cyclic time vs. linear time 89
2.4. The instant from the perspective of modern physics 96
2.4.1. Relativity and the relativity of simultaneity 101
2.4.2. Quantum mechanics and temporal indeterminacy 104
2.4.3. Theories of quantum gravity and discrete time 110
2.5. Mathematical analysis of the instant 114
THE PARADOX OF THE ETERNAL INSTANT: PERCEPTION OF THE PRESENT IN A WORLD OF CONTINUOUS FLOW 121
3.1. Conceptualization of the Eternal Instant 123
3.2. Experiences of the Eternal Instant 127
3.3. The Eternal Instant in Artistic Creation 132
3.4. Time, Consciousness, and Reality 136
3.4.1. The Eternal Instant and Theories of Consciousness 137
3.4.2. Relationship with the Concepts of Free Will and Determinism 142
3.4.3. Neuroscientific Perspectives on the Perception of Time and the Eternal Instant 145
3.4.4. Language and the Perception of Time: The Argument of "Arrival" 148
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ETERNAL INSTANT IN BUDDHISM AND MEDITATIVE PRACTICES. 151
4.1. Meditative Practices in Buddhism: Portals to the Eternal Instant 158
ETHICS OF THE INSTANT 165
5.1. Ethical Decisions in the Present Moment 167
5.2. The Influence of Immediate Perception on Moral Judgment 172
5.3. Ethical Responsibility in the Age of Digital Immediacy 176
5.4 Strategies for Rapid Ethical Decisions 184
AESTHETICS OF THE PRESENT 188
6.1. Aesthetic Appreciation of the Ephemeral and the Beauty of the Unrepeatable 190
6.2. The Ephemeral as a Response to Contemporary Society 191
6.3. Nature and the Ephemeral: A Rooted Connection 192
6.4. Ephemeral Art and Performance 193
6.5. Temporality as an existential reflection 194
6.5.1 The Consciousness of Finitude 194
6.5.2. Existentialism and the creation of meaning 196
6.5.3. Temporality in Eastern Philosophy 197
6.5.4. Ephemeral Art as an Existential Metaphor 198
6.5.5. Temporality as a source of vitality 202
6.5.6. Temporality as an existential reflection within the framework of artistic creation and aesthetic sensitivity. 203
Fragility as a theme and motif in art 203
Art as a witness to the ephemeral 204
Temporality in aesthetic sensitivity 209
Artistic creation as existential reflection 212
The beauty of the present moment and the joy of aesthetic pleasure 213
6.5.7 The Kantian sublime and the aesthetic joy of the instant 216
INTERACTION BETWEEN ETHICS AND AESTHETICS IN THE PRESENT 222
7.1. How immediate aesthetic judgments influence ethical decisions 231
7.2. The ethics of the aesthetic representation of the present 236
7.3. Towards an integration of ethics and aesthetics in the experience of the present 246
FINAL CONCLUSIONS 250
INDEX OF NAMES AND CONCEPTS 255