Temporal Asymmetries in Philosophy and Psychology

Our everyday thinking about time contains various past/future asymmetries. We think of past events as fixed and future events as open. We take some emotional attitudes (such as relief) to be appropriate in virtue of whether an event is past or future. We also seem to value past and future events differently. Empirical studies have shown, for example, that we award the very same events more compensation if they are described as taking place in the future, compared to the past. What might account for these asymmetries? Are temporal biases in how we value events rational or adaptive, allowing us to properly focus our energies on things to come? Can they be explained by more familiar asymmetries of knowledge and control? Or does explaining or justifying such biases rely on us or subjects making metaphysical assumptions about the nature of time?

This workshop brings together philosophers and psychologists to examine these and related questions concerning temporal asymmetries in our attitudes. The workshop is part of an AHRC Project ‘Time: Between Metaphysics and Psychology’ , examining the relevance of empirical work in psychology for the metaphysics of time.

Confirmed participants include:

Craig Callender, Eugene Caruso, Meghan Sullivan, Leaf Van Bowen, Tom Dougherty, Alison Fernandes, Matthew Farr, Patrick Burns, Teresa McCormack, Christoph Hoerl, John Campbell