Masterclasses II 18-19
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Course director
Description
The subject of this course is the flow of time as it features in metaphysics and in philosophy of mind. Our starting point will be an unsettling philosophical problem. We experience time as flowing. Yet according to the leading accounts of time in metaphysics (and physics), time does not flow. If time in fact does not flow, as mainstream metaphysics has it, then a pervasive aspect of our everyday experience seems illusory and ungrounded. If, on the other hand, time does flow, as our experience suggests, then mainstream metaphysics has got time wrong. Each option is alarming. Each is a call to philosophical adventure.
The course will have three parts that will be dedicated to the following three questions, respectively:
- What is the nature of temporal flow?
- How do we experience temporal flow?
- Is our experience as of temporal flow veridical, and is it reliable?
We will study several philosophical models, some classical and some novel, of the nature of temporal flow, of our experience as of temporal flow, and of the representational and epistemological relationship between the nature and the experience of temporal flow. Our overall aim will be to put these models to work in tackling the opening challenge of reconciling the reality and experience of time.
Bibliography
Dainton, B. 2000, 2nd edition 2006: Stream of Consciousness. London: Routledge.
Maudlin, T. 2002: “Remarks on the Passing of Time”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 102: 237–52.
Prosser, S. 2016: Experiencing Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sattig, T. forthcoming a: “The Sense of Temporal Flow: A Higher-Order Account”, forthcoming in Philosophical Studies (2018).
Sattig, T. forthcoming b: “Experiencing Change: Extensionalism, Retentionalism, and Marty’s Hybrid Account”, forthcoming in G. Bacigalupo and H. Leblanc (eds.), Anton Marty and Contemporary Philosophy, Palgrave Macmillan (2018).
Sattig, T. forthcoming c: “The Hard Problem of Temporal Consciousness”, forthcoming in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (2019).
Sattig, T. ms: “What Is the Flow of Time?”, unpublished manuscript.
Skow, B. 2015: Objective Becoming. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
