Time, Homogeneity and Phenomenology

Abstract

The relevance of Wittgenstein's reflections on time (to be found in chapter seven of
the Philosophical Remarks) for the understanding of Wittgenstein's dismissal of the
project of a phenomenological language has already be noticed by commentators like
Denis Perrin (Perrin 2004) and Mathieu Marion (Marion 1998). Nevertheless, I think
they do not provide the complete understanding of the reasons that lead Wittgenstein
to this dismissal. In this paper, I will sketch a brief analysis of this chapter, in
which I try to show that a central clue to this issue is found in Wittgenstein's
mention of the Bergsonian conception of the time of immediate experience as
'heterogeneous', in opposition to the 'homogeneous' physical time.