The Images of Time: An Essay on Temporal Representation

by Robin Le Poidevin

The Images of Time presents a philosophical investigation of the nature of time and the mind's ways of representing it. Robin Le Poidevin examines how we perceive time and change, the means by which memory links us with the past, the attempt to represent change and movement in art, and the nature of fictional time. These apparently disparate questions all concern the ways in which we represent aspects of time, in thought, experience, art and fiction. They also raise fundamental problems for our philosophical understanding, both of mental representation, and of the nature of time itself.

Le Poidevin brings together issues in philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, and literary theory in examining the mechanisms underlying our representation of time in various media, and brings these to bear on metaphysical debates over the real nature of time. These debates concern which aspects of time are genuinely part of time's intrinsic nature, and which, in some sense, are mind-dependent.

Arguably, the most important debate concerns time's does time pass in reality, or is the division of events into past, present, and future simply a reflection of our temporal perspective--a result of the interaction between a "static" world and minds capable of representing it? Le Poidevin argues that, contrary to what perception and memory lead us to suppose, time does not really pass, and this surprising conclusion can be reconciled with the characteristic features of temporal experience.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics

210 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2007

About the author

Robin Le Poidevin (born 1962) is a Professor of Metaphysics at the University of Leeds whose interests include the nature and experience of time, agnosticism, and philosophy of religion. He joined the Department of Philosophy at Leeds in 1989 having completed postgraduate studies at both Oxford and Cambridge, obtaining his MA from the former and his PhD from the latter.He is also the current president of The British Society for the Philosophy of Religion.

From 1998 to 2001 he was Head of Department, and in 2000 was appointed to a personal chair in Metaphysics. He is a member of the Centre for Philosophy of Religion, the Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, and is the Editor of Religious Studies, and Past President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion.

In 2007 he gave the Stanton Lectures in the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge, and in 2012 was Alan Richardson Fellow in Theology at the University of Durham.

Reviews

[Cesar S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books on metaphysics of time. It's great on the relationships between time and memory and time in art.

[CM · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main thesis here is to "show how the nature of time and the representation of time interacts." Being a philosophy professor, the author concentrates on the latter but I am more into the former(and the interaction)...A mismatch of my own fault.

The book is divided into 3 parts, "Aspects of Time and Representation"(Epistemology), "Memory and Perception" (Past,Present, Duration and Order) and "Art and Fiction"( Instant and Time in Fictional work). It's more for reader with a basic understanding in epistemology . As I am not, it's daunting but not impossible ,thanks to the conclusions provided at the end of each part.

If you come from "A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time" (I did), you may want to skip this book as it's definitely more niche and advanced than those mentions in that book suggests.