Here and now

The concept of “here and now” is central to a large number of psychotherapeutic practices, especially those influenced more or less directly by the emerging popularity of mind-fulness (see chapter “Meditation”). In this context, however, the idea of here and now will be analyzed from the point of view of philosophy. This makes it possible to understand two important issues which form a connection between the here and now and the question of the possible: (1) The here and now is never a pure present, but rather a unity between different temporal and spatial dimensions. (2) The true experience of the here and now is not the oblivion of the past and future (or the indifference towards them), but rather a real and active synthesis of these different temporal dimensions. Through this synthesis, the here and now becomes a moment of possibility. The concept of the “now” has been more investigated in philosophy than that of the “here,” because it belongs to the field of the philosophy of time and to the question of the instant. In this context, however, the analysis will focus on some authors for whom the “now” cannot be separated from the “here.” This is something that has to be thought through right from the beginning: despite a certain current emphasis on the “now,” “here and now” contains also the “here.” This means that “here and now” does not imply a pure present, but rather something different, which is worth investigating. This will be done through some examples taken from nineteenth-century philosophy, in particular from Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard. This list is not exhaustive, because the aim is not to consider all interpretations of the here and now that have been given, but to consider some significant examples that cultivate a connection between the “here and now” and the possible. This is something that has to be thought through right from the beginning: despite a certain current emphasis on the “now,” “here and now” contains also the “here.” This means that “here and now” does not imply a pure present, but rather something different, which is worth investigating. This will be done through some examples taken from nineteenth-century philosophy, in particular from Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard. This list is not exhaustive, because the aim is not to consider all interpretations of the here and now that have been given, but to consider some significant examples that cultivate a connection between the “here and now” and the possible. This is something that has to be thought through right from the beginning: despite a certain current emphasis on the “now,” “here and now” contains also the “here.” This means that “here and now” does not imply a pure present, but rather something different, which is worth investigating. This will be done through some examples taken from nineteenth-century philosophy, in particular from Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard. This list is not exhaustive, because the aim is not to consider all interpretations of the here and now that have been given, but to consider some significant examples that cultivate a connection between the “here and now” and the possible.