Now or Never: How Consciousness Represents Time

Consciousness has a peculiar affinity for presence; conscious states represent their contents as now. To understand how conscious states come to represent time in this way, we need a distinction between a mental state that represents now and one that simply occurs now. A teleofunctional theory of representation can account for the distinctin in terms of the development and function of explicit temporal representation. The capacity to represent a situation explicitly as ‘now’ and compare it with past situations in order to prepare for the future results from the separation of goals from the particular action required to attain them. That is, when a creature is able to consider alternative paths of action, it becomes necessary to conceive of alternate future times as distinct from the present moment.

The virtue of a representationalist theory of consciousness is that it offers an explanation of consciousness in terms of its most important mental feature – representation – and it is compatible with materialism. The developmental, functional approach of a teleofunctional theory is especially promising in its ability to integrated research from diverse empirical fields for support of its claims.

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Work Title Now or Never: How Consciousness Represents Time
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Paula Droege
Keyword
  1. Consciousness
  2. Representation
  3. Time
  4. Teleofunctionalism
  5. Millikan
  6. Specious present
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Consciousness and Cognition
Publication Date November 28, 2008
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2008.10.006
Deposited May 06, 2024

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Version 1
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  • Created
  • Added Droege_09_now.pdf
  • Added Creator Paula J Droege
  • Published
  • Updated
  • Updated Keyword, Publisher Identifier (DOI), Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Consciousness, Representation, Time, Teleofunctionalism, Millikan, Specious present
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2008.10.006
    Publication Date
    • 2009-01-01
    • 2008-11-28
  • Renamed Creator Paula Droege Show Changes
    • Paula J Droege
    • Paula Droege