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Theory of Time-The Present and Abstract Thought

Why the Present Tense Impacts on Theories of Time

Dec 4, 2008 Chris Woolfrey

Thought is inside time but one can abstractly understand the concept of thought without time. This is what is called the present tense, the voice of abstract thought.

The present tense must sit in the abstract because the human concept of time is always flowing, and events within it are fixed; all events are perceived by the human brain to 'have happened' or 'to be expected to happen'; to specify an event in time is to fix that timeframe, and this runs naturally contrary to the idea of what makes up the idea of the ‘now’, or ‘the present’.

Present Tense Thoeory and Time Constraints

Here as an example:

A man walks 100 steps. At step 1, steps 2-100 are to occur in the future. At step 2, steps 3-100 are to occur in the future, and step 1 occurred in the past.

That much can be agreed according to common sense. But where does step 1 fall, in the first instance? When the man is standing still the step occurs in the future, and the moment he makes the move to step, it is in the past; he moves, time is flowing, and he is at step 2, and step 1 is in the past. There can be no defined present, because each event that one might call ‘happening’ – which of course, has the past and the future sitting either side of it – can be broken down within itself to produce a new central point, and that process can be continued in a seemingly infinite number of divisions.

Back to the Future?

That the example in the present tense had to be explained shows that present tense is always in the abstract; if the sentence had read "A man walked 100 steps", we would already be placing the event in time, and so all 100 steps occurred in the past. If it were to read "A man is to walk 100 steps", then all 100 steps occur in the future, and have of course been placed within time.

But the original sentence in the present tense? That took explanation, because it is in the abstract. Predictably, though, the past and future examples required no explanation because their place within time is fixed; they have existed, or are going to exist. The present tense, though, cannot by its very nature be fixed, and so must always exist in the abstract.

That things are happening 'now' is often taken for granted but it is not something that is easily defined. Truly it is the past and the future - the events with which our relationship is arguably more detached - that work according to human definition and human common sense. The present is, in essence, a cultural metaphor, laid down as a bridge between the more readily definable future and past.

The copyright of the article Theory of Time-The Present and Abstract Thought in Philosophy is owned by Chris Woolfrey. Permission to republish Theory of Time-The Present and Abstract Thought in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.