The Authority of Time

How does time generate its authority? What links can we find between forms of temporality or, rather, regimes of historicity and forms of authority? Such is the question broadly explored in these pages. First comes the past, as source and bearer of authority: this is the oldest association, the most famous (ever since Rome), and was for a long time the most powerful. But wasn't this authority, with all its arms and baggage, so to speak, transferred to the future at the rising of European modern times? And what about now, when, in our societies, future has lost its evidencing power and present tends to fill up all the space? Can this omnipresent present become, by itself and for itself, bearer of authority or even exclusive source of authority