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

See Examples For:

specious present

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

The people who will not be patient with a troublesome neighbor, who want to bring everything to a "showdown" are no less the victims of a specious present.

From Public Opinion by Lippmann, Walter

So far as the two events are practically adjacent in one specious present, this continuity of passage may be directly perceived.

From The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919 by Whitehead, Alfred North

The longest duration which we immediately feel is what is called the "specious present."

From Public Opinion by Lippmann, Walter

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