What is juxtaposition of times in view of a situation of temporal co-presence here, and what – intentional or unintentional – togetherness? How can the indisputable fact of the different speeds in the courses of time, measured against à normative target of temporal development, be revoked, whose imperative is derived from the illusion of simultaneity?
In physics, thanks to the accuracy attained in the measurement of time, the predictions of the Special Theory of Relativity have been directly observed. If two observers are equipped with clocks and move at constant speed relatively to one another, the clock of the one or other will be slow in comparison. The concept of simultaneity for two events occurring in different places has thus lost its significance in terms of physics. Each observer has his or her proper' time, which is measured by an accurate clock and which is always borne with him or her. If all the relative speeds of the different observers are known, their proper time can be calculated by means of the mathematical equations of the theory.
In social life there is also a proper time which everybody bears with them. It arose relatively late, and its capacity for political articulation is only in the process of development. In earlier societies there were hardly signs, and there was also no need, of an individualized time. The social time of the group, of the tribe, held good for all members, even though distinctions grew along the lines of social distinction: according to sex, according to age-groups, according to occupation based on the division of labour, according to status and according to power. The European Middle Ages, which lived largely without clocks, developed different systems of time for different social activities. The religious sphere - as in other social systems - was an exception, and also held a special position with regard to time. Not only were there 'holy times', the set times in the flow of secular time, but work in the service of God', as the religious sector was called, followed its own strict temporal rules. The conflict over time first flared up when God's time was no longer consistent with that of traders, and it became unclear whether it was permitted to lend money in order to earn interest in time.22
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The Illusion of Simultaneity