" The Persistence of Memory " is a famous painting by Salvador Dalí from 1931, now at the MoMA in New York. Dalí himself told several anecdotes about this painting: the painting was inspired by the soft cheese he ate one evening at dinner. Instead of cheese, the Spanish painter painted clocks: three of them are melting, taking the shape of the elements on which they are resting, while the fourth clock remains solid, but covered in black ants. The use of these elements was intended to express the concept of time : intangible and unquantifiable, a meaning taken up by Henri Bergson.
Bergson and time
He defined two types of time: on the one hand, there was the scientific conception that saw time as a series of interconnected and measurable instants ; on the other, there was real time, made up of moments that each of us experiences in our own consciousness. Based on this, Bergson believed that perception was the carving out of a partial image of reality. Memory, on the other hand, is the accumulation of memories, lasting, independent of one's consciousness.
The concept of time in sociology
In its early stages, sociology drew inspiration from other social science disciplines to arrive at its concept of time. Sociology distinguishes this concept and divides it into physical time and social time . Durkheim was the first to express himself on this subject . According to the French sociologist, time cannot be reduced to a subjective expression: it must be objective in order to divide and measure it. The category of time cannot simply be traced back to our states of consciousness: it " is an abstract and impersonal scheme that envelops not only our individual existence, but that of humanity ." In this way, time takes on the character of an authentic social institution specific to man. For Ricoeur , social time can easily be described as the bridge between an ultra-long cosmic time (quantitative) and finite time, characterized instead by qualitative elements, which is individual time. According to Schultz, time is constructed socially, within a broader process of social construction of reality.
Time and modernity
Simmel, on the other hand, connects time and the metropolis . A characteristic of the metropolis is the precision with which everything is measured, monetized, and calculated. Even people's time, and therefore their lives or part of them, is carefully measured and monetized. In the metropolis, individuals act synchronously. According to Bauman , in modernity, time has become almost mechanical , something that humans can invent, construct, and possess. He adds that " in the same way, time has become a factor independent of the inert and immutable dimensions of land or water masses. Time came to be differentiated from space because, unlike the latter, it could be changed and manipulated ." It is not really known whether Dalí took inspiration from these concepts, but his painting is a good way to develop the sociological conception relating to the concept of time. He wanted to demonstrate individual time with soft clocks , and physical time , measurable with this instrument, with rigid time.
Barbara Petrano
Sociology taught me how to think, and writing helps me express my ideas. I have a degree in Digital Cultures and Communications and am passionate about digital marketing.
