On the Technical Culture of the Western Modern Age and the Completely Different Perception of Time in Romania. Time Measurement and Social Time from the Middle Ages until Nowadays

Abstract

The paper is a historical excursion into the perception of time and how this important temporal dimension of the modern man was indissolubly linked to the social, religious, economic, cultural or political environment from Western Europe. The author presents the main periods in the history of time, from the natural time and the ecclesiastical time specific to the traditional society of the Middle Ages to the way in which “modern time” emerged throughout the last seven centuries. In the last part, he refers to the different perception of time in Romania, explained by the religious and internal relations factors, conditions which made possible the coexistence of mechanical and natural time.