Other Times
Philosophical Perspectives on Past, Present and Future

An interesting and thought-provoking study of issues in the philosophy of time.

David Cockburn (Author)

9780521034081, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 February 2007

372 pages
21.5 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.481 kg

'Cockburn presents a fresh and stimulating perspective on issues to which there is a standard and well-worn approach. …. Cockburn raises lots of interesting and perceptive points, illustrated with and supported by a wide range of stimulating and striking examples. …. [E]very reader will find a great deal that is challenging and valuable in Cockburn's book.' Stephen Makin

We view things from a certain position in time: in our language, thought, feelings and actions, we draw distinctions between what has happened, is happening, and will happen. Frequently, approaches to this feature of our lives - those seen in disputes between tensed and tenseless theories, between realist and anti-realist treatments of past and future, and in accounts of historical knowledge - embody serious misunderstandings of the character of the issues; they misconstrue the relation between metaphysics and ethics, and the way to characterize the kind of sense which tensed language has. David Cockburn argues that the notion of 'reasons for emotion' must have a central place in any account of meaning, and that the present should have no priority in our understanding of tense. This allows for a more satisfactory articulation of the place of past, present and future in our thought, and of the form which criticism of our thought might take.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. Time and Tense: 1. Introduction
2. Under the aspect of eternity
3. The view from here
4. Memory, emotions and the past
5. The role of tense
6. Tense and ontology
7. The passage of time
Part II. Past, Present and Future: 8. The present
9. The reality of the future
10. Testimony, history and the real past
Part III. Time and Eternity: 11. Time and eternity in Spinoza and Weil
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]