Customer Reviews

The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely

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I first became interested in this book after seeing it in a bookshop. Having read some Darwin and a fair bit of Bergson I was interested. It is rare indeed nowadays to see any work at all on the concept of time in any other form than the typical linear classical physics/relativity idea. This posits time as something that either acts as a medium through which matter moves or in the case of relativity as another dimension much like the three known space dimensions. In both cases time is strongly spatialised i.e. thought of in the same way that space is.

Time is of course strongly linked to change whether it is the idea of change prevalent in ancient times e.g. Plato and Aristotle, Heraclitus or the more modern versions used in science. Grosz has studied time's presence through three well known figures Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Henri Bergson. Darwin's concern was how organisms evolved over time, Nietzsche how the human being uses the "Will to Power" to become more and Bergson was interested in both. That is in how organisms evolved and what duration (time) actually is, especially in comparison to space.

Grosz analyses all of them in turn. She does something unexpected with Darwin, she suggests that natural selection is in fact a positive "force" rather than a purely negative influence on species. I did not find myself believing this, it makes more of natural selection that it is originally posited to be. In turn she considers the ideas of Nietzsche who did foresee Bergson to some degree in that he proposed "The Will to Power" which can be recognised a little in Bergson's elan vital. Finally she discusses Bergson's ideas on time/duration, evolution, intelligence, instinct and so on. She studies Bergson far more deeply than either of the other two.

She also relates these concepts to politics especially those of feminism, racism and other forms of political struggle. Her discussion of Bergson is deep and she understands his work well. At times I found myself impressed at her whole grasp of Bergson's issues. She locates a kind of complete whole within his work which eluded me. I had read Creative Evolution, Time and Free Will and The Creative Mind but have not as yet covered Duration and Simultaneity or Mind-Energy.

I find that she takes the most from Bergson and relates it at the highest level to much else in our current cultural and political reality. However I did not feel convinced by her study of Darwin and the earlier parts of the book felt a little disjointed. Some parts, especially those on Bergson flowed well together. A good piece of work with more potential.