ABSTRACT
A related cause of stumbling is to be found in the verbal ambiguity that arises in languages that do not possess a tenseless mood, such as English. Systematic ambiguity may not be harmful, but it is liable to lead to real ambiguity: and the use of ambiguous language is hardly likely to produce clear thought. Time as conceived is unlimited in character, is regarded as infinitely divisible and mathematically continuous like an infinite series. Conceptual time is also conceived to be a unity in spite of the difficulty of ascribing to it any principle of coherence. Perceptual time, however, is rooted in experience, and professions of unity are not made in regard to it. To avoid confusion between perceptual and conceptual time, unless the context makes it clear which is being discussed, time as perceived will be called 'the specious present' and the word 'time' will be reserved for conceptual time.
