Explanation in theories of the specious present

Abstract

Time-consciousness theories aim to explain what our experi ences must be like so that we can experience change, succes sion, and other temporally extended events (or at least why we believe we have such experiences). The most popular and influential explanations are versions of theories of the spe cious present, which maintain that what we experience appears to us as temporally extended. However, the role that specious presents have in bringing about temporal experiences remains undescribed. The briefly mentioned suggestions maintain that having temporally extended experiential content is either necessary or sufficient for hav ing temporal experiences, or that the contents provide input for separate perceptual processes. In this paper, I argue that none of these suggestions succeed. Consequently, the the ories of the specious present have not provided a satisfactory explanation of temporal experiences and their central moti vation is lost.