Memory As a Challange to Human Existence – Aspects Of Temporality And The Role Of Memory In Reference To Guitton’S Concept Of Time

Abstract

The article describes the attitude of Jean Guitton towards the category of time, concentrating on two essential notions: dissociation and contamination. The author presents the phenomenon of memory in different philosophical, cultural and psychological backgrounds. Memory is presented in its connection with cultural symbols, language and individual aspects of man, as well as psychological explorations of the way it is developed from early stages of child’s experience. Going further these examples are analyzed according to Guitton’s proposition of perceiving the role of memory, with two different solutions of its function: either moving it away from the present condition of man or, on the contrary, making it an essential factor of man’s present choices. Answering the question of the importance of memory for phenomenological analysis, the categories of dissociation and contamination are used as a tool to determine not only the individual approach towards memory of the individual, but also in a broader sense, taking into consideration the cultural and linguistic aspects of man.