Table Of ContentSimultaneity and Delay
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy
Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series from
Continuum. The series features first-class scholarly research monographs
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Adorno’s Concept of Life, Alastair Morgan
Badiou, Marion and St Paul, Adam Miller
Being and Number in Heidegger's Thought, Michael Roubach
Deleuze and Guattari, Fadi Abou-Rihan
Deleuze and the Genesis of Representation, Joe Hughes
Deleuze and the Unconscious, Christian Kerslake
Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New, edited by Simon O’Sullivan
and Stephen Zepke
Derrida, Simon Morgan Wortham
Derrida and Disinterest, Sean Gaston
Derrida: Profanations, Patrick O’Connor
The Domestication of Derrida, Lorenzo Fabbri
Encountering Derrida, edited by Simon Morgan Wortham and Allison
Weiner
Foucault’s Heidegger, Timothy Rayner
Gadamer and the Question of the Divine, Walter Lammi
Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling, Sharin N. Elkholy
Heidegger and Aristotle, Michael Bowler
Heidegger and Logic, Greg Shirley
Heidegger and Nietzsche, Louis P. Blond
Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology, Peter S. Dillard
Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction, Michael Lewis
Heidegger, Politics and Climate Change, Ruth Irwin
Heidegger’s Early Philosophy, James Luchte
Idealism and Existentialism, Jon Stewart
Kant, Deleuze and Architectonics, Edward Willatt
Levinas and Camus, Tal Sessler
Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology, Kirk M. Besmer
Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future, edited by Jeffrey Metzger
Nietzsche’s Ethical Theory, Craig Dove
Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by James Luchte
The Philosophy of Exaggeration, Alexander Garcia Düttmann
Time and Becoming in Nietzsche’s Thought, Robin Small
Sartre’s Phenomenology, David Reisman
Who’s Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? Gregg Lambert
Žižek and Heidegger, Thomas Brockelman
Žižek’s Dialectics, Fabio Vighi
Simultaneity and Delay
A Dialectical Theory of Staggered Time
Jay Lampert
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy
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© Jay Lampert 2012
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Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
e-ISBN: 978-1-4411-8305-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lampert, Jay, 1957–
Simultaneity and delay : a dialectical theory of staggered time/Jay Lampert.
p. cm. -- (Continuum studies in Continental philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-2639-9 (hardcover)
1. Time. 2. Synchronization. I. Title.
BD638.L255 2011
115--dc23 2011037080
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
Preface ix
1. Introduction to Concepts 1
(a) Simultaneity 2
(b) Delay 12
2. Phenomenology of Simultaneity and Delay: The Problem of
Converging Timelines 21
(a) Simultaneity in Husserl 21
(b) Delay in Husserl, Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger 30
3. Simultaneity and Delay in the Era of Eternity: Ancient and
Medieval Issues 49
(a) Simultaneity as Synchronization: Plato and Plotinus 49
(b) Delay as Deferred Eternity: Plato and Origen 57
4. Simultaneity and Delay in the Era of Time: Late Modern Issues 75
(a) Simultaneity in Kant: The Schema for Returning to the
Same Place: Simultaneity as Reversible Succession 75
(b) Simultaneity in Hegel: The System of Expanding
Explications: Succession via Divisible Simultaneity 82
(c) Delay in Lessing and Historical Dialectic: Lingering
and Repetition 93
5. Simultaneity and Delay in the Sciences 97
(a) Simultaneity Relative to Frames of Reference: Physics 97
(b) Delay in, but not Observed by, Consciousness:
Cognitive Science 112
viii Contents
6. Simultaneity and Delay in the Era of Simultaneity: Bergson 123
(a) Disjunctive Simultaneity as Virtual Substitution:
Duration and Simultaneity 123
(b) Delay as Rhythmic Oscillation: Matter and Memory 137
7. Simultaneity and Delay in the Era of Delay 149
(a) Delay as Différance: Derrida’s Solution to
Two Problems of Time in Husserl 150
(b) Simultaneity as Pure Past: Deleuze’s Solution to
the Problem of Time in Bergson 159
8. Simultaneity and Delay in Politics 171
(a) Delay as Diachrony to Come: Balibar, Deleuze and Derrida 172
(b) Simultaneity and Decision: Badiou 189
9. Simultaneity and Delay in Music 197
(a) Simultaneity and Seriality: Schoenberg and Adorno 199
(b) Delay and the Unpulsed Time-Arrow: Boulez, Deleuze and
Spectral Music 215
10. Conclusion 227
(a) Organizing the Simultaneity-Delay Timescape 227
Notes 233
Bibliography 249
Index 259
Preface
There should have been more about X in this book. All criticisms in this
form are well founded. The philosophers most used in this book—Husserl,
Bergson, Derrida and Deleuze—all require a great deal more analysis.
Other philosophers discussed—Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Merleau-
Ponty, Heidegger, Balibar and Badiou—should have been used more.
Philosophers only mentioned should have been discussed. Commentaries
on all these philosophers should have been taken up. I should have become
an expert on physics, cognitive science, and music theory. This book is too
short.
I would like to thank the University of Guelph for generous support of
research leaves and Chairs Andrew Bailey and Andrew Wayne. Many gradu-
ate students at the University of Guelph, where I presented some of this
material for the first time in graduate courses, have been extraordinarily
helpful in generating ideas and sending me things to read, particularly
Jason Robinson and David Peck. Jill Gilbert did a brilliant job transcribing
my lectures. Francis Coté was a great Undergraduate Research Assistant.
Casey Ford, as a Graduate Research Assistant, helped me with final
bibliographical notes. All my graduate students during this period have
contributed enormously to my research.
Many people have been very supportive of this research: Len Lawlor,
Costas Boundas, and Fredric Jameson in particular. I have benefited
immeasurably (and dialectically) over the years from discussions of this
material with Jennifer Bates. Karen Houle has given me all sorts of ideas.
Earlier versions of portions of this book were presented at Marquette
University, Villanova University, Duquesne University, and the University
of Manitoba, as well as what used to be the joint Doctoral Program of
Guelph/McMaster University/Wilfred Laurier University. Fred Evans
provided helpful suggestions on a synoptic version. James Swindal at
Duquesne University has contributed by his support. Philosophical conver-
sations with Joshua Kates, Dan Selcer, Jim Vernon, and many other
