Doctoral thesis
English

The experience of temporal passage

Defense date2013-01-25
Abstract

The project of my dissertation was to advance the metaphysical debate about temporal passage, by relating it to debates about the perceptual experience of time and change. It seems true that we experience temporal passage, even if there is disagreement whether time actually passes, or what temporal passage consists in. This appears to give the defender of dynamic time an advantage in accounting for our experience. I challenge this by arguing that no major account of temporal perception can accommodate experiences of temporal passage such that we could infer passage from them. This shows that static theories of time are at no disadvantage in accounting for the phenomenology of temporality. The conclusion has far reaching consequences: for instance, an important motivation for holding an A-theory of time is precisely the psychological intuition that we experience temporal passage. By undermining that intuition, I undermine the motivation for holding an A-theory.

Keywords
  • Metaphysics of time
  • Temporal experience
  • Temporal passage
  • Change
  • McTaggart paradox
Citation (ISO format)
FRISCHHUT, Akiko Monika. The experience of temporal passage. Doctoral Thesis, 2013. doi: 10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:26613
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Thesis
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Technical informations

Creation04/03/2013 19:43:00
First validation04/03/2013 19:43:00
Update14/03/2023 20:04:13
Status update14/03/2023 20:04:13
Last indexation13/05/2025 16:11:13
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