Temporal Consciousness I

Aims

The course provides students with an introduction to the place of the philosophy of temporal experience within the philosophy of mind. It looks first at the relations between perception and the present, memory and the past, expectation and the future and then at the relation between folk-psychology and the B-theory.

Contents

The course presents and evaluates a number of views about the relation between perception, memory and expectation, on the one hand, and the present, past and future, on the other hand. It considers a number of ways of distinguishing between immediate and mediate memory and expectation. It considers the relations between the view that the A-series is all in the head and similar views about secondary qualities.

Coursework

The course consists of a series of lectures alternating with presentations given by students and general discussions. The students will be required to submit regular written work and produce a research paper at the end of the course.

Reading

Dainton, B. “Temporal Consciousness”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Findlay, J. N. 1941 “Time: A Treatment of some puzzles”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 19,3, 216-235.

Mellor, D. H. 1998. Real Time II. London: Routledge.