Instantaneous Consciousness of Time: Reconsidering Dainton’s Model of the Specious Present in the Context of Husserl’s and Broad’s Models

Abstract

In his book The Stream of Consciousness, Barry Dainton proposes his “overlap model” to explain the phenomenon of continuous time without succumbing to the problems of previous models, such as the ones by Edmund Husserl and C.D. Broad. Dainton rejects models with instantaneous phenomenal presents, because he favors ones with a durationally extensive “specious present.” Yet, his portrayal of present perceptual awareness as spanning an extent of time could become problematic if we try to square it with a view of the physical world’s present temporality as being composed of moment-by-moment instantaneous variations that we might be detecting in our perceptual experience. So, in accordance with Dainton’s aim of providing realist models of phenomenal time, I will make use of the concept of instantaneous velocity that is used in physics, along with the notion of sensory memory from perception studies, to provide a model of the specious present in which the present moment of consciousness involves a direct awareness of instantaneous change.

Keywords

• phenomenology
• time consciousness
• specious present
• instantaneous variation
• Barry Dainton
• Edmund Husserl
• C. D. Broad

ZAMANIN ANLIK BİLİNCİ: HUSSERL VE BROAD MODELLERİ BAĞLAMINDA DAINTON’UN ALDATICI ŞİMDİKİ AN MODELİNİ YENİDEN DÜŞÜNMEK

Öz

Bilinç Akışı kitabında, Barry Dainton; Edmond Husserl ve C.D. Broad’ın modelleri gibi önceki modellerin problemlerine düşmeksizin, sürüp-giden-zaman fenomenini açıklamak üzere “üst üste gelme modelini” önerir. Dainton, sürüp-giden fenomenal mevcut anlara dair modelleri reddeder, zira; sürekli genişleyen, aldatıcı mevcut anları tutar. Yine de onun şimdinin algısal farkındalığı tasviri, duyumsadığımız fiziksel dünyada onu an-be-an sınırlandırmayı denediğimizde problematik bir hal alır. Bu sebeple Dainton’ın gerçekçi bir fenomenal zaman modelini ilerletme amacını sağlamak adına; fizikte kullanılan anlık hız kavramını, ani değişimin dolaysız bir farkındalığını içeren bilincin-mevcut-anı içindeki aldatıcı-mevcut-an modelini sağlamak adına; algı çalışmalarında kullanılan duyusal bellek kavramı ile birlikte kullanacağım.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Barry Dainton
• Edmund Husserl
• C. D. Broad
• Fenomenoloji
• Zaman Bilinci
• Aldatıcı-an
• Ani Değişim

References

1. Dainton, Barry. Stream of Consciousness: Unity and Continuity in Conscious Experience. London / New York: Routledge, 2000.
2. Dainton, Barry. Time and Space. 2nd ed. Durham: Acumen, 2010.
3. Dainton, Barry. “Time in Experience: Reply to Gallagher.” Psyche 9, no. 10 (2003).
4. Husserl, Edmund. On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893–1917). Edited by Rudolf Bernet. Translated by John Brough. Vol. 4. Collected Works. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1991.
5. Jerison, David. “Limits, Continuity, and Trigonometric Limits (Single Variable Calculus, Session 2).” Class Lecture, MIT, 2007. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01-single-variable-calculus-fall-2006/video-lectures/lecture-2-limits/.
6. Luck, Steven, and Andrew Hollingworth. “Visual Memory Systems.” In Visual Memory, edited by Steven Luck and Andrew Hollingworth, 3–8. Oxford: Oxford University, 2008.
7. Miller, Izchak. Husserl, Perception, and Temporal Awareness. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1984.
8. Priest, Graham. In Contradiction: A Study of the Transconsistent. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University, 2006.