Chronogenetics : the inheritance of biological time / by Luigi Gedda and Gianni Brenci.

  • Gedda, Luigi.
Date:
[1978], ©1978
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Chronogenetics : the inheritance of biological time / by Luigi Gedda and Gianni Brenci. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/240 (page 7)
    The Scientific Study of Time 7 ing produces (visual sensations, acoustical sensations, etc.) from the temporal effect that every sensation, taken as a whole, can produce. Therefore, sensation, with its mechanism of intercepting spe¬ cific external stimuli, also contains the fundamental moments of a uniform and generic background perception, that is, the per¬ ception of time. The conscious grasping of the order of entrance of sensations represents a typical phenomenon of perception of a time; it serves to build up a chronological order of events and also offers a model which analogically orders whatever does not come from the sensory system but rather from the imagination or thought. In point of fact, there is a before and after, both of which are detached from external happenings concerning mental opera¬ tions. It is also conceivable that the phenomena of thought leave traces, so far not well understood, in the nervous centers, permitting man to evaluate a variation, a subsequent time, or a duration of activities, as often happens for a sequence of sensations. Starting from the instinctive consciousness of particular time and then from the summary evaluation of the before and after, man arrives at the rational consciousness of time. In other words, he not only lives it, as does the animal, but he is consciously aware of it. He compares it with previous and subsequent times in his life and uses it as the basis of his judgment. An additional advance consists of acquiring the notion and the concept of time. Man goes from the particular to the universal, paying no attention to the individual times which have occurred, but rather considering time generally, trying to grasp its characteristics and practical value (notion of time) in addition to its meaning and speculative value (concept of time). Both animals and men, to differing degrees, are able to register time lived or spent, as it were. The most characteristic functions of life are those which permit the conscious memorization of their occurrence by man. Prior to this, purely biological memory mechanisms occur for which the living being is not conscious, even though these events may be factual and proven. For example, in the immunological