The Temporality of the Good Life: Resonance As a Key-Concept in Critical Theory

The modern reality of ethical pluralism implies that we cannot define the substance or content of a good life. However, perhaps it is possible to identify the temporality, or at least some of the crucial temporal aspects of a good life? The paper sets out to explore just this. In the first part, it identifies three time-levels that have to be brought in ‘resonance’ or coherence within a life: The temporality of everyday-life, the temporality of a life-time (or biographical time), and the temporality of one’s age or epoch (historical time). In its second part, the paper seeks to establish the argument that the good life is achieved through a mediation between singular ‘moments of resonance’ (as opposed to situations of alienation) and stable ‘axes of resonance’ that allow for such moments. The crucial point here is that the establishing and preservation of such axes of resonance require a certain level of security and stability that is potentially threatened or undermined in an era of incessant social acceleration.

While moments of resonance are rare and shortlived, what subjects need are stable and reliable ‘Axes of Resonance’ which give access to such experiences. In modern society, such axes can be love and the family, work, but also nature, art and religion. I will explore these ‘Spheres of Resonance’ by contrasting them to ‘Spheres of Alienation’ which mirror the former and might be on the rise in a late-modern world governed by the imperatives of speed and competition.