Course information

Improve your understanding of the philosophy of time and learn to discuss key concepts relating to time with confidence.

Over ten weeks, this course explores diverse approaches to understanding the nature of time and its impact on our everyday existence. Drawing from philosophy, chronobiology, psychology, neurobiology and the arts, we investigate how time is experienced, conceptualised and represented. We will also explore objective and subjective experiences of time; the concept of time travel; time in human reasoning; time in physics; neural mechanisms underlying our perception of time; and the role of art and literature in shaping temporal experience.

Aims

This course aims to improve your understanding of the philosophy of time. It will also equip you to discuss the perspectives of modern philosophers and schools of thought with confidence.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• discuss key concepts in the philosophy of time
• discuss ancient philosophical perspectives in contrast to modern philosophical perspectives
• identify the many approaches to understanding concepts of time, including: chronobiology, psychology, neurobiology and the arts
• relate the phenomenological aspects of the course to your own experience of memory and identity
• apply these phenomenological considerations to your personal decision making and choices.

Content

What is time?

In this introductory session, we will consider the following themes:

• Presentism
• Eternalism
• Does time has a definitive direction?
• The paradox of modern physics and our ordinary experience of time
• Memories and influence on the past and future.

Ancient ideas of time

"What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?... He was preparing hell for those that would pry into such profound mysteries” — Augustine, Book X1 of the Confessions.

Augustine’s probing analysis of time has influenced many later attitudes toward the nature of time. We will consider:

• the Old Testament
• Chinese and Islamic ideas
• the significant of clocks and calendars.

Modern philosophers on time

We will look at a range of views from all the great modern philosophers, including Descartes.

Time and life

We will discuss chronobiology, the recent science which studies living things in time. We will discuss biological time in human and non-human species.

Einstein issues

We will consider the impact that Einstein had on theories of time, relativity, and the connection between space and time.

Psychological time

Past, present and future are all crucial to our sense of self and identity. How we unify ourselves as temporal beings is a key issue in psychology. We will discuss Jay Lampert’s The Many Futures of a Decision (2018), a text that deals with the impact of decision-making alongside the philosophy of time.

A phenomenological perspective

"A full and interesting content can put wings to the hour and the day" — Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain (1924).

Mann expresses the internal aspects of time perception. Philosophers such as Bergson and phenomenologists like Husserl thought deeply about the concept of subjective time.

Time in literature

We will take a range of poems and literary works written about time, from both the cosmic and the human point of view. Examples to be discussed include T. S. Eliot's poem Burnt Norton (1936).

Time in the arts

We will consider a range of artists and their representation of time through art. This includes Salvador Dali and his work In search of the Fourth Dimension (1979) – a meditation on Einstein’s theory of a temporal fourth dimension.

Time and the brain

Neuroscientists agree that the brain plays an active role in building a mental temporal picture of reality. In considering neuroscientific perspectives, we will explore the following:

• The neural mechanisms underlying our experience of time
• Our awareness of change
• Our ability to anticipate the future
• Our sense of the flow of time
• Our ability to place events into the correct order of temporal succession.

Intended audience

Anyone with a general interest in philosophy and the course themes.

Prerequisites

None

Delivery style

Lecture/seminar

Delivery mode

Online via the platform Zoom

Materials

Course handouts and readings are distributed electronically using Dropbox.