ABSTRACT
The literature on temporal experience has focused on the dynamic features of temporal experience: the feeling of passage, flux, the ‘whoosh of process’. And there has been substantial progress both in characterizing and explaining these features. But the familiar image of an open future that is in the process of coming into being remains shrouded in darkness, notwithstanding that it is part of most people’s pre-theoretic conception of time. Probably the most evocative metaphorical rendering of the ideas and emotional attitudes associated with this image is contained in these lines from the Rubaiyyat. The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
