specious present
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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 Karin Stephen
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
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 Alfred North Whitehead
The longest duration which we immediately feel is what is called the "specious present."
From Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann
The specious present includes elements at all stages on the journey from sensation to image.
From The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
