Temporal Subjectivity

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses and summarizes a previously published article (Smith, Shelley, “Temporal Relativism and the Objective Present,” 2021, Journal of Posthuman Studies 5: 39–52) before building on the concepts presented to deepen the conversation between science and philosophy. Essentially, the previous article explored how the apparatus of human and non-human animal bodies play a fundamental role in the creation of perception. These physical mechanisms are time-dependent, and this indicates that there is a latency between an event and perception of the event. The article postulates a preconscious timeframe that is metaphysically objective. The current article discusses the notion of temporal relativism and its applications to metaphysical subjectivity, demonstrating that the time dependence of organic function implies that subjectivity, according to current definitions, is fundamental to most multicellular animal life.