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

But this present is not the momentary meeting-place of two eternities or the brief span of time which psychologists have named 'the specious present'.

From The Unity of Civilization by Various

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

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

The specious present includes elements at all stages on the journey from sensation to image.

From The Analysis of Mind by Russell, Bertrand

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.