Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Discuss any topics related to metaphysics (the philosophical study of the principles of reality) or epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge) in this forum.
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TigerNinja
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Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by TigerNinja »

We regret or enjoy the past, as it is constantly in our minds, we are caught up in the present as it is right now, despite only being caught for a shorter time that the blink of an eye and the future constantly remains in our anxious minds. But is it all the same. Personally, I think so. I think the illusory concept of past and future are shades of the present.

I believe this as we cannot see the past except for within our minds. There is no physical past or future that we can touch and/or interact with so it doesn't exist. In the present, be it silently or consciously consider all 3. It is a way we make a picture of the world. They exist as reflections of the present as the past is what composed the present. The present can only be in existence with this contradictory thing that is the past. I call it contradictory, as it is not physically there, yet it is the only way the present can exist. So this thing that used to exist is the past. This means that the past is the present, only that the present is the manifestation of the combination of 'pasts' which each in and of themselves are in the billions upon trillions upon quadrillions of frames in each millisecond. We could go into how anything can move in a moment at all though I would rather not.

The future is the present since the future is composed of the present. We live in what forms it and also, the future is undetermined by the human mind. It is determined to happen by a preset number of causes, but we do not know exactly what will happen. Nonetheless, despite it being unknown, the future doesn't exist. It will exist, although it doesn't, as it has yet to occur. This means that it can only exist in the present as a figment of our imagination.

Do you believe that the past, present and future are one and the same?
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
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wanabe
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by wanabe »

For humans time is a matter of memory and conjecture. In some ways they are indeed the same, because they depend on memory and perception.

In my personal opinion time does not exist, in the sense of clocks. This is not to say these things are not useful.

Events happen surly, but not in a linear fashion, more a messy series of folds and webs that converge and diverge. Humans merely perceive time in a linear fashion because of our limited physical capabilities, we don't see it fold and web. We can only follow one line of the web and fold. So it appears straight because we see such a small segment.

Past present and future can be the same theoretically but that is rarely the case because change is constant.
Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, Help All Others To Do So.Meaning of Life Is Choice. Increase choice through direct perception. Golden rule+universality principal+Promote benefits-harm+logical consistency=morality.BeTheChange.
Surreptitious57
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Surreptitious57 »

I do not think past and present and future are the same. Because they occupy different points both in my subjective interpretation
of time and in spacetime. The standard definitions of time are the distance between events [ points in spacetime ] and the passing
of an event and the passing of a thought. All these definitions would be invalid without temporal reference to past and present and
future. For no two points in spacetime occupy the same point in time. Because it takes time to travel between them. Even photons
in vacuum which are the fastest thing in the observable universe take time to do this because the speed of light is finite [ although
photons themselves do not actually experience time as such. As they have zero rest mass so do not experience infinite mass at c ]
A MIND IS LIKE A PARACHUTE : IT DOES NOT WORK UNLESS IT IS OPEN
Eaglerising
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Eaglerising »

This is a difficult question for numerous reasons. 1) Because time and space (distance) pertains to the physical world. To avoid confusion, you need to limit it to the physical or the non-physical.

2) The future as human's perceive it is actually thought's projection of the past. In other words, it's an illusion created by thought, based on the past.

3) If the past, present and future coexist, there really is only the present moment. Everything else is thoughts attempt to make sense out of what it doesn't understand.

I don't know about you, but these 3 stimulate additional questions in my mind. Such as, are we also looking at the past? Because our past is is like a browser in that it is affecting what we see in the present.

Thought prevents us from seeing the present moment. In the absence f thought we observe present moment. Yet the moment we think or reflect upon what we saw, we are seeing "what was," for it is no longer the present. And because thought is involved, it prevents us from seeing the present moment. More questions arise the more you examine this question.
Fooloso4
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Fooloso4 »

I do not think the past, present, and future are the same. They are all to some extent a construct. The future is wholly a construct, based on what we imagine will be. The past is a construct based on what was and we remember it, the stories we tell ourselves of what happened, what we did and why. The present is a construct based on the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and others and life itself. The stories can change based on our physical, emotional, and intellectual state or mood, and they can change based on what happens; and so what happens is in part a matter of how we judge events, and how we judge events is in part a matter of our physical, emotional, and intellectual state. It is a kind of feedback loop.

If you are talking about time, all I can say is that it is time for me to make dinner.
Eaglerising
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Eaglerising »

The present can only be experienced in the absence of thought. Although it can be experienced, it cannot be described for the description is it is the past.
Nick_A
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Nick_A »

TN
Do you believe that the past, present and future are one and the same?
I believe they are the same in that they all exist within NOW. Imagine you are standing in the middle of a large field. A plane appears from the horizon and is coming towards you. It is coming from the your future. When the plane is overhead it is here now and gradually the plane disappears into the past. But as this took place all this happened now for the passengers in the plane. From this perspective our past, present, and future, are still taking place within NOW.
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
Eaglerising
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Eaglerising »

There are two completely different realities about the past, present, and future. One of them is intellectual or unreal because they were created by thought. If you carefully and attentively observe this reality, you’ll see what you call the past, present and future are distant or separate identities. In other words, what you identify yourself as being, is different from the past, present, and future. Likewise, the past, present, and future are separate and different realities.

The other reality of time and space is radically different. Thought cannot imagine or comprehend it because it exists outside the field of thought. It can only be accessed by experiencing. And, it can only be experienced in the absence of what you identify yourself as being or call “self” or “you.” Unlike the former reality, there is no separation. The past, the present, the future, and you cease to exists, there is only “what is,” which cannot be described or imagined.

Unlike the first reality, the latter reality doesn’t involve belief because it can be experienced. And that experience can be repeated. Unfortunately, the first reality is unable to comprehend the latter because it exists outside the first reality’s field of existence.
Steve3007
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Re: Is The Past, Present, and Future The Same?

Post by Steve3007 »

Do you believe that the past, present and future are one and the same?
No, because if they were then we wouldn't need to have different words for them.
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