Harry Friedman
The Experience and Perception of Time. What is ‘the perception of time’?
The very expression ‘the perception of time’ invites objection. Insofar as time is something different from events, we do not perceive time as such, but changes or events in time. But, arguably, we do not perceive events only, but also their temporal relations. So, just as it is natural to say that we perceive spatial distances and other relations between objects (I see the dragonfly as hovering above the surface of the water), it seems natural to talk of perceiving one event following another (the thunderclap as following the flash of lightning), though even here there is a difficulty.
For what we perceive, we perceive as present—as going on right now. Kinds of temporal experience There are a number of what Ernst Pöppel (1978) calls ‘elementary time experiences’, or fundamental aspects of our experience of time. Duration The inference model may be plausible enough when we are dealing with distant events, but rather less so for much more recent ones.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, IN HIS OWN WORDS. A cache of over 40 letters reveals the artist’s humour and imagination ... From THE ECONOMIST online When René Magritte was 13 years old, his mother drowned herself in a local river. When the body was recovered her face was found to be covered with her nightdress. No one knew whether she had deliberately shielded her eyes from death or if the river current had simply veiled her face. Magritte had begun painting a year earlier. He would become obsessed with the hidden. For nearly a century fans of Magritte have studied his works, determined to find hidden meanings within them. The letters, most of which are undated and not included in the collection that was published in 1994, span more than 20 years and cover a wide range of topics—artistic, literary and surreal. Magritte had met the pretty Georgette Berger when they were both schoolchildren. The artist and the poet had met three years earlier and quickly became close friends.
In writing, Magritte is unremittingly cheery. Belief in Nothing. Nihilism confuses people.
"How can you care about anything, or strive for anything, if you believe nothing means anything? " they ask. In return, nihilists point to the assumption of inherent meaning and question that assumption. Do we need existence to mean anything? After all, existence stays out there no matter what we think of it. Nihilists who aren't of the kiddie anarchist variety tend to draw a distinction between nihilism and fatalism. What is nihilism? As a nihilist, I recognize that meaning does not exist.
In the same way, I accept that when I die, the most likely outcome will be a cessation of being. Even further, I recognize that there is no golden standard for life. A tree falling in a forest unobserved makes a sound. Many people "feel" marginalized when they think of this. Meaning is the human attempt to mold the world in our own image. This distanced mentality further affirms our tendency to find the world alienating to our consciousness. Nagel_bat. Levine.