Bontems Vincent
LARSIM - CEA Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France,
Rev Synth. 2014;135(1):71-89. doi: 10.1007/s11873-014-0244-4.
The construction of historical frame of reference based on the distinction between and articulation of phenomenological and chronological times. As it relativises the notion of simultaneity and inverts its relation to causality, the special theory of relativity can induce analogous modes of reflection on the themes of "contemporaneity" in the history of art (Panofsky) and in epistemology (Bachelard). This "relativist" method, often misunderstood, sheds light on both historical and presentist methods.