A note on temporal phenomenology and belief formation

Abstract In this paper, I offer a commentary on the recent article “The moving open future, temporal phenomenology, and temporal passage,” focusing on the temporally aperspectival hypothesis . According to it, the widely shared belief in robust passage is due to a low-level perceptual mechanism involving awareness of temporally aperspectival perceptions being replaced over time. I interpret the phenomenology at play as ambiguous between an inward-directed awareness (focused on the renewal of experiences themselves) and an outward-directed interpretation (focused on the renewal of what we experience). Following in part some suggestions by the authors, I argue that this duality, combined with the influence of passage-friendly language and metaphors, may explain the observed distribution between those who do and do not believe in robust temporal passage. I also suggest that distinguishing between two related but distinct beliefs—the Priorian Belief in external robust passage and a Husserlian Belief in the internal renewal of experience—could clarify the 70%–30% split in intuitions about temporal passage documented by X-phi studies.