specious present

American  

noun

Philosophy.

1. a short time span in which change and duration are alleged to be directly experienced.

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Example Sentences

Although painting is essentially a spatial art, it includes a temporal element, the "specious present," the single moment of action or of motion.

From The Principles of Aesthetics by Parker, Dewitt H.

When the finger-tip leaves the filled space, part of it, because of its length, has already, as it were, left the specious present, and has suffered the foreshortening effect of being relegated to the past.

From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Münsterberg, Hugo

Spatial and temporal relations must sometimes be included, for example in the case of a swift motion falling wholly within the specious present.

From Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand

Succession can occur within the specious present, of which we can distinguish some parts as earlier and others as later.

From The Analysis of Mind by Russell, Bertrand

For practical purposes "the present" is what is known as "the specious present," which covers a certain ill-defined period of duration from which the instantaneous "present moment" is recognised to be a mere abstraction.

From The Misuse of Mind by Stephen, Karin