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This article is about the concept of current time. For a gift, see Gift. For other uses,
see Present (disambiguation) and Presence (disambiguation).

Time

Current time (update)

07:05, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

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The present is a moment in time discernible as intermediate between past and future.

The present (or here and now) is the time that is associated with the

events perceived directly and in the first time,[1] not as a recollection (perceived more
than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is a period of time
between the past and the future, and can vary in meaning from being an instant to a day
or longer.
It is sometimes represented as a hyperplane in space-time,[2] typically called "now",
although modern physics demonstrates that such a hyperplane cannot be defined
uniquely for observers in relative motion. The present may also be viewed as a duration
(see specious present).[3][4]

Contents

 1Historiography
 2Philosophy and religion
o 2.1Philosophy of time
o 2.2In Buddhism
 o 2.3Christianity and eternity
 3Physical science
o 3.1Special relativity
o 3.2Cosmology
o 3.3Archaeology, geology, etc.
 4Grammar
 5See also
 6References
o 6.1Citations and notes
o 6.2General information
 7External links

Historiography[edit]
Contemporary history describes the historical timeframe that is immediately relevant to
the present time and is a certain perspective of modern history.

Philosophy and religion[edit]

Quotations

You shouldn't chase after the past or place

expectations on the future. What is past is
left behind. The future is as yet unreached.
Whatever quality is present you clearly see
right there, right there.

— Buddha, Bhaddekaratta Sutta[5]

What we perceive as present is the vivid
fringe of memory tinged with anticipation.

— Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of

Nature[6]

Philosophy of time[edit]
Main article: Philosophy of time
"The present" raises the question: "How is it that all sentient beings experience now at
the same time?"[7] There is no logical reason why this should be the case and no easy
answer to the question.[citation needed]
In Buddhism[edit]
Buddhism and many of its associated paradigms emphasize the importance of living in
the present moment — being fully aware of what is happening, and not dwelling on
the past or worrying about the future.[8] This does not mean that they
encourage hedonism, but merely that constant focus on one's current position in space
and time (rather than future considerations, or past reminiscence) will aid one in
relieving suffering. They teach that those who live in the present moment are the
happiest.[9] A number of meditative techniques aim to help the practiser live in the
present moment.
See also: Mindfulness (Buddhism) §  Examples from contemplative and daily life
Christianity and eternity[edit]
Christianity views God as being outside of time and, from the divine perspective past,
present and future are actualized in the now of eternity. This trans-temporal conception
of God has been proposed as a solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge (i.e.
how can God know what we will do in the future without us being determined to do it)
since at least Boethius.[10] Thomas Aquinas offers the metaphor of a watchman,
representing God, standing on a height looking down on a valley to a road where past
present and future, represented by the individuals and their actions strung out along its
length, are all visible simultaneously to God. [11] Therefore, God's knowledge is not tied to
any particular date.[12]

Physical science[edit]
Special relativity[edit]

A visualisation of the present (dark blue plane) and past and future light cones in 2D space.

The original intent of the diagram on the right was to portray a 3-dimensional object
having access to the past, present, and future in the present moment (4th dimension).
[clarification needed]

It follows from Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity that there is no such thing

as absolute simultaneity. When care is taken to operationalise "the present", it follows
that the events that can be labeled as "simultaneous" with a given event, can not be
in direct cause-effect relationship. Such collections of events are perceived differently
by different observers. Instead, when focusing on "now" as the
events perceived directly, not as a recollection or a speculation, for a given observer
"now" takes the form of the observer's past light cone. The light cone of a given event is
objectively defined as the collection of events in causal relationship to that event, but
each event has a different associated light cone. One has to conclude that in relativistic
models of physics there is no place for "the present" as an absolute element of reality,
and only refers to things that are close to us.[13] Einstein phrased this as: "People like us,
who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is
only a stubbornly persistent illusion".[14][15]
Cosmology[edit]
Further information: Physical cosmology, Cosmic time, and Chronology of the universe
In physical cosmology, the present time in the chronology of the universe is estimated at
13.8 billion years after the singularity determining the arrow of time. In terms of
the metric expansion of space, it is in the dark-energy-dominated era, after the
universe's matter content has become diluted enough for metric expansion to be
dominated by vacuum energy (dark energy). It is also in the universe's Stelliferous Era,
after enough time for superclusters to have formed (at about 5 billion years), but before
the accelerating expansion of the universe has removed the local supercluster beyond
the cosmological horizon (at about 150 billion years).[16]
Archaeology, geology, etc.[edit]
In radiocarbon dating, the "present" is defined as AD 1950.

Grammar[edit]
In English grammar, actions are classified according to one of the following twelve verb
tenses: past (past, past continuous, past perfect, or past perfect continuous), present
(present, present continuous, present perfect, or present perfect continuous), or future
(future, future continuous, future perfect, or future perfect continuous).[17] The present
tense refers to things that are currently happening or are always the case. [18] For
example, in the sentence, "she walks home everyday," the verb "walks" is in the present
tense because it refers to an action that is regularly occurring in the present
circumstances.
Verbs in the present continuous tense indicate actions that are currently happening and
will continue for a period of time.[19] In the sentence, "she is walking home," the verb
phrase "is walking" is in the present continuous tense because it refers to a current
action that will continue until a certain endpoint (when "she" reaches home). Verbs in
the present perfect tense indicate actions that started in the past and is completed at
the time of speaking.[20] For example, in the sentence, "She has walked home," the verb
phrase "has walked" is in the present perfect tense because it describes an action that
began in the past and is finished as of the current reference to the action. Finally, verbs
in the present perfect continuous tense refer to actions that have been continuing up
until the current time, thus combining the characteristics of both the continuous and
perfect tenses.[21] An example of a present perfect continuous verb phrase can be found
in the sentence, "she has been walking this route for a week now," where "has been
walking" indicates an action that was happening continuously in the past and continues
to happen continuously in the present.

See also[edit]
  Arrow of time
 Contemporary history
 Deixis
 Philosophical presentism
 Observation
 Self
 Time perception
 Specious present
 Near real-time computing

References[edit]
Citations and notes[edit]
1. ^ Hegeler, E. C., & Carus, P. (1890). The Monist. La Salle, Ill.
[etc.]: Published by Open Court for the Hegeler Institute. page
443.
2. ^ Sattig, T. (2006). The language and reality of time. Oxford:
Clarendon Press. Page 37.
3. ^ James, W. (1893). The principles of psychology. New York:
H. Holt and Company. Page 609.
4. ^ Hodder, A. (1901). The adversaries of the sceptic; or, The
specious present, a new inquiry into human
knowledge. Chapter II, The Specious Present. London: S.
Sonnenschein &. Pages 36 - 56.
5. ^ MN 131: Bhaddekaratta Sutta
6. ^ Whitehead, Alfred North. The Concept of
Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930), p. 73
7. ^ McInerney, Peter K. (1992). Time and Experience. Temple
University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-56639-010-1.
8. ^ Hạnh, Thích Nhất (1990). Our appointment with life: the
Buddha's teaching on living in the present. Parallax Press. p.
53. ISBN 978-0-938077-36-7.
9. ^ Rahula, Walpola  (1974). What the Buddha Taught. Grove
Press. p.  72. ISBN 9780802130310. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
10. ^ Consolatio Philosophae, Bk. 4
11. ^ Cline, Austin. God is Eternal – Timeless vs.
Everlasting. About.com.
12. ^ Irwin, William; White, Mark D. (2009). Watchmen and
Philosophy: A Rorschach Test. John Wiley and Sons. p. 128.
13. ^ Rovelli, Carlo, 1956-.  The order of time. Segre, Erica,,
Carnell, Simon, 1962-, Translation of (work): Rovelli, Carlo,
1956-. New York.  ISBN  978-0-7352-1610-
5. OCLC  1020300173.
14. ^ Letter from Einstein to the family of his lifelong
friend Michele Besso, after learning of his death, (March
1955) as quoted in Science and the Search for God:
Disturbing the Universe (1979) by Freeman Dyson, Ch. 17, "A
Distant Mirror",
 15. ^ Tippett, Krista. "Einstein's God (NPR)".  Speaking of
Faith. American Public Media. Archived from the original  on 5
January 2008. Retrieved  31 March 2018.
16. ^ Krauss, Lawrence M.; Starkman, Glenn D. (2000). "Life, the
Universe, and Nothing: Life and Death in an Ever-expanding
Universe".  Astrophysical Journal.  531  (1): 22–
30.  arXiv:astro-ph/9902189.  Bibcode:2000ApJ...531...22K.  d
oi:10.1086/308434.  S2CID 18442980.
17. ^ (no author). "Verb tenses".  English Oxford Living
Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25
June  2018.
18. ^ (no author). "Verb tenses".  English Oxford Living
Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25
June  2018.
19. ^ (no author). "Verb tenses".  English Oxford Living
Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25
June  2018.
20. ^ Merriam-Webster (n.d.). "Present Perfect"  (Web). Merriam-
Webster.com. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved  27 July 2018.
21. ^ (no author). "Verb tenses".  English Oxford Living
Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25
June  2018.

General information[edit]

 Greene, Brian, (2004). The Fabric of the Cosmos:

Space, Time, and the Texture of
Reality Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41288-3
 Stepath, Katrin, (2006). Gegenwartskonzepte,
Würzburg. ISBN 3-8260-3292-6

External links[edit]
 Quotations related to present at Wikiquote

 The Experience and Perception of Time

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