stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

Deleuze calls the first synthesis of time contraction-contemplation. These words should
already attune us to Deleuze’s Kantian connection. We have seen that Kant has argued that there
is thought that does not imply the Cogito but rather implies the passive self. Contraction-
contemplation is that thought. It is a thought (contemplation) that is nothing other than the
sensible, perceptual, in fact organic synthesis (contraction). Contraction-contemplation is an
activity of the passive self that constitutes time as the living present. In other words, this activity
of contracting-contemplating gives the passive self a sense of what it means for it to exist in the
present time. What this present time is depends on the nature of contraction-contemplation.
Because each passive self contracts-contemplates differently, there are different living presents
for different passive selves. Still that there is such a thing as the present time at all demonstrates
that the passive self has become some kind of individual as result of its own activity. Its
existence gets to have a meaning for it. The question that Deleuze asks is: how does one living
present become another living present, in other words, how does time pass? We can understand
this question in different terms. How does the passive self become more than just the individual
who exists in its own living present? Deleuze claims that no matter how long or short the living
present is for the individual that living present has to have a limit. In other words, whatever the
living present is for the individual, it must at one point move into the past. The reason why
Deleuze thinks this is the case is because the activity that constitutes time as the living present is
not infinite. In other words, to contract-contemplate is itself a limited activity. The reason why
this is the case is because infinite contraction-contemplation, Deleuze claims, “is not physically
possible” (DR 76). For this reason, Deleuze claims, time must pass. Again we must be careful
with this statement. That time must pass does not name some objective reality in which the
individual exists. Instead, time must pass because the activity of contracting-contemplating
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