Tomás Lally - The Present as a Future Concern

Season 8 continues with a recording from our 2021 annual conference, The Future as a Present Concern.   This episode features a presentation from Tomás Lally   Abstract: In this paper I want to flip the conference theme and privilege the living present. The integratedness of temporal consciousness is such that this flipping is possible. The conference theme emphasises concerns about the future in the present moment but I want to emphasise how what is happening now will be a future concern. We cannot change the past but we can act in the present to effect change in what will be considered part of the past tomorrow. Right now in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic previously unthinkable measures may be necessary, but that this does not invalidate critique. Humanity is experiencing a collective trauma, we are sacrificing our rights and freedoms for the sake of an uncertain future, a future in which we will experience to a greater or lesser extent what we might describe as COVID-lateral damage. This paper will show, drawing on Merleau-Ponty how in the present crisis the dialogue of touch has been undermined, we are virtually present but bodily absent, bodily present but distant, the face of the other is masked, an ethical demand (Levinas) muted, the other’s status as autonomous subject has been recast as potentially infectious object (the Sartrean other). This paper will argue on the basis of Arendt’s account of the gap between past and future that in the living present we have a duty to mitigate future regrets and future trauma. In privileging the present as a future concern we emphasize its existential possibility for responsible autonomous ethical action. This is a requirement lest we arrive in a post COVID future framing a retrospective narrative about powerlessness and lack of autonomy, proffering the Nuremberg defense. This thesis has application not only in the present but in every future present.   Biography: Tomás Lally completed degrees in Philosophy in the 1980's, B.A (NUIM), B.Ph. (Pont. Univ. Maynooth.) and M.A, (University of London). I returned to academia after an absence of 30 years in 2017 to commence a practice based PhD in English and Philosophy. He combines his interest in philosophy with his interest in creative writing. His PhD project consists of a Philosophy thesis exploring the origin and development of Self in an intersubjective context. He is also writing a Novel on the theme of new beginnings which explores how received narratives define character and the possibility of deconstructing these narratives.   Further Information: This recording is taken from our Annual UK Conference 2021, co-organised with University of Galway and The Irish Philosophical Society. This conference was held online consisting of live webninars with keynote presents and pre-recorded presentations from panel speakers. Biographical information of speakers is taken from the programme of that event and therefore may not be up-to-date.   The British Society for Phenomenology is a not-for-profit organisation set up with the intention of promoting research and awareness in the field of Phenomenology and other cognate arms of philosophical thought. Currently, the society accomplishes these aims through its journal, events, and podcast.   About our events: https://www.thebsp.org.uk/events/   About the BSP: https://www.thebsp.org.uk/about/