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

with which it is invested” (DR 85). But what have we forgotten? Reminiscence constitutes the
pure past in the living present in terms of the Platonic Idea. “For the latter [the second synthesis
of time], from the height of its pure past, surpassed and dominated the world of representation: it
is the ground, the in-itself, noumenon and Form” (DR 88). What does this mean? The pure past is
the power in the living present or a way of being that makes it pass to another. However, that
reminiscence constitutes pure time in the living present in terms of the Platonic Idea means that it
invests that power with the Platonic Idea that the living presents resembles. For this reason, the
living present or a way of being passes to another only by means of resemblance. “Nevertheless,
is it really Kant’s prestigious contribution to have introduced time into thought as such? Platonic
reminiscence would seem already to have implied this...But the question: In what form does
reminiscence introduce time?” (DR 87). Reminiscences constitutes the pure past in the living
present as the power of time to return to its forgotten, mythical past. This is how the passive self
becomes the Cogito. It acts in terms of the Good. In this sense, reminiscence constitutes time as
circle. “The Ideas none the less remain the ground on which the successive presents are
organized into the circle of time, so that the pure past which defines them is itself still necessarily
expressed in terms of a present, as an ancient mythical present” (DR 88). In this sense,
reminiscence betrays pure time at the same time that it constitutes it. The question that Deleuze
asks is: is there a faithful way of constituting the pure past? Is there a faithful way of constituting
the power of time that makes the living present or a way of being pass to another? Is there a
faithful way of constituting time as becoming? “Unless we have not yet found the last word,
unless there is a third synthesis of time...” (DR 85).
Reminiscence betrays the pure past in the sense that it hinges it to the Platonic Idea. It is
the Platonic Idea that orders the passage of a living present or a way of being to another. “The
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