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The unreal future
Author(s) -
BURGESS JOHN P.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
theoria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1755-2567
pISSN - 0040-5825
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-2567.1978.tb00175.x
Subject(s) - straddle , object (grammar) , seesaw molecular geometry , psychology , cognitive science , epistemology , aesthetics , cognitive psychology , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , physics , finance , nuclear physics , neutrino , economics
Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and individually, as something that could be discerned by a better brain, the past would not be so seductive: its demands would he balanced by those of the future. Persons might then straddle the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object. It might be fun. But the future has no such reality (as the pictured past and the perceived present possess); the future is but a figure of speech, a specter of thought.